Incrementalism as Dramaturgy: The Case of the Nuclear Freeze

Abstract

This article analyzes the controversy surrounding recent efforts to enact a nuclear freeze resolution in terms of Charles O. Jones's "public satisfying" model. Jones argues that nonincremental policy departures are possible when an aroused public opinion is focused on an issue, pushing it to the forefront of the institutional agenda and leading to a new course in public policy. Examination of the nuclear freeze case, however, provides only partial support for Jones's model. A dramatic increase in mass public concern over nuclear issues did advance the issue on the congressional agenda, but the subsequent process of majority building led to compromises that produced a freeze resolution that was an incremental change at most. The article concludes with an alternative model to explain these events.