The Politics of Attention
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
9:40 PM
Preface
- Policy changes come from a complex interaction of: Institutions, fixed preferences and resources
- Agenda Setting: how information is used and how attention is allocated to each policy topics
○ Viewing political systems as information processing instruments brings new insights and comparisons
○ Information always needs a sender, messenger and receiver
○ Information is not used efficiently in politics
- When policy subsystems are disturbed, policy punctuations occur
Chapter 1: How Government Processes Information and Prioritizes Problems
- Information is often distorted, ignored, misused and cited selectively by both sides of the debate
- Officials distort information to better represent their constituents
- New theory of policy change; Disproportionate information processing that integrates incrementalism with punctuated
equilibrium
- Politics is the struggle among interests, and interests win because they have resources (overstated)
I. Overview of the Argument
○ Why no model has replaced the discredited incremental theory yet?
Incrementalism wasn't wrong, it must be combined with a theory of punctuated equilibrium
○ "Disproportionate information processing" leads to pattern of extreme stability and occasional punctuations
Iron triangles form between specialized interest groups, congressional committees and federal agencies
The dynamic is an appeal by the disfavored side of politics (Congress, president, parties, etc.)
○ Policy image shifting can lead to aggressive venue shopping that shuts out old venues
When images shift, punctuations occur because of disproportionate information
*If issues win the attention of the primary policymaking institutions, errors accumulate and punctuations
must occur to "catch up" with changing reality
□ Decision costs also add "drag"
II. Information Processing
○ Collecting, assembling, interpreting, and prioritizing signals from the environment
○ Signals are information and when we become aware of them, it becomes news
Uncertain, ambiguous and biased
○ "Disproportionate information processing"; government respond to signals when they cross a "threshold" or a
point at whi
More
Less
