Theoretical Approach to the Policy Process: The Multiple Streams Framework

Abstract

Building on an extensive literature review, Herweg modifies the multiple streams framework (MSF) in order to explain agenda change and policy change in the European Union (EU). She suggests considering two coupling processes, one capturing agenda-setting (called agenda coupling) and another one capturing decision-making (called decision coupling). Next, Herweg defines functional equivalents of the MSF’s core concepts in the EU, given that the framework was derived from observations of agenda change in the United States. As one of the book’s key objectives is testing how well the MSF fares in explaining EU policy processes, she spells out the framework’s causal mechanisms and derives a set of hypotheses regarding agenda change and policy change in the EU, which guide the book’s empirical analysis.