Replication data for: Agendas and Instability in American Politics

In this innovative account of the way policy issues rise and fall on the national agenda—the first detailed study of so many issues over an extended period—Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones show that rapid change not only can but does happen in the hidebound institutions of government. Short-term, single-issue analyses of public policy, the authors contend, give a narrow and distorted view of public policy as the result of a cozy arrangement between politicians, interest groups, and the media. Baumgartner and Jones upset these notions by focusing on several issues—including civilian nuclear power, urban affairs, smoking, and auto safety—over a much longer period of time to reveal patterns of stability alternating with bursts of rapid, unpredictable change. A welcome corrective to conventional political wisdom, Agendas and Instability revises our understanding of the dynamics of agenda-setting and clarifies a subject at the very center of the study of American politics.这项针对政策议题在国家议程上兴衰规律的创新性研究，是首个针对长时段内众多议题展开的详细探讨。弗兰克·R·鲍姆加特纳（Frank R. Baumgartner）与布赖恩·D·琼斯（Bryan D. Jones）指出，僵化刻板的政府体制不仅能够，而且确实会发生快速变革。两位作者认为，短期单一议题的公共政策分析，会让人们对公共政策形成狭隘且失真的认知，误将其视为政客、利益集团与媒体之间利益勾兑的产物。鲍姆加特纳与琼斯通过聚焦民用核电、城市事务、吸烟与汽车安全等多个议题，并将研究周期拉长至更长的时间跨度，推翻了上述认知误区，揭示出政策议程始终在稳定状态与突发性快速且不可预测的变革之间交替的演化模式。作为对传统政治主流认知的有益矫正，《议程与不稳定》（Agendas and Instability）修正了学界对议程设置动态机制的理解，并阐明了美国政治学研究的核心议题。