Agenda-setting and Multiple Streams: Assessing the Effect of Windows on Policy Change

The Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) stresses the importance of open (ephemeral) windows of opportunity (policy windows in MSF terminology) in helping to produce policy change. This paper assesses the impact of policy windows by relaxing this assumption. Can there be policy change in the presence of continuously open policy windows? We compare two windows. To keep things comparable, we use only windows that occur in the problem stream and that appear to be of similar magnitude, i.e., major disruptions in “normal” policy-making. The first is when the window is always open; we term those windows with a long shadow. We assess changes in US national security policy since 2001. The second issue is one with finite duration; we term those normal policy windows. We examine the effects on the banking sector of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008. We hypothesize continuously open windows should have a different impact from ones that open and close not so much in size (major v minor change) but scope (the range of changes across policy domains). The findings have implications for theories of agenda-setting and policy formation.