Agenda Setting at the Comitê Itajaí: An Application of the Kingdon Model

The objective of this article is to study agenda setting during the formulation of the Itajaí River Basin Plan by the Comitê Itajaí (Itajaí Committee). In methodological terms, it consists of a qualitative, documentary and field case study, collecting data through documentary research and interview. The studied case was that of the decision to charge for the use of water resources, to which we applied Kingdon’s multiple streams model (2003) in order to understand the dynamics of the involved agents’ actions in which the combination of the problem, political and policy streams led to the opening of a policy window. Hence, water resource users, acting as policy entrepreneurs, made use of the policy window to modify the formula for charging originally proposed by the Committee’s board of directors, thus ensuring a more appropriate instrument for their interests.