Agenda Setting from the Bottom Up
The prevailing model of policymaking in American political science is a popularly driven, "bottom-up" portrait of decision making. This "democratic-pluralist" model assumes that any problem can be identified by individuals or groups, by candidates seeking election, by political leaders seeking to enhance their reputation and prospects for reelection, by political patties seeking to define their principles and/or create favorable popular images of themselves, by the mass media seeking to "create" news, and even by protest groups deliberately seeking to cal attention to their problems. And, of course, various crises and disasters from natural disas ters such as hurricanes and droughts to man-made tragedies such as school shootings and air plane crashes attract public attention and compel public officials to respond.
Public Opinion and Agenda Setting. Events, and the media's reporting of them, can focu public attention on issues, problems, and "crises". Concern over terrorism dominated the public's mind following the horrific televised attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Later the war in Iraq became "the most important probler facing the country" according to opinion of 2006 in which opposition Democrats capture control of both houses of Congress.
But the threat of financial collapse and deep recession soon replaced all other issues on the public's agenda. The nation's "top priority" for President Barack Obama became joobs and the economy. Defending against future terrorist attacks fell to second place in the policy priorities of most Americans. Other issues Social Security. education, healthcar budget deficits, the poor, crime, defense, taxes followed behind. A minority of American listed the environment, immigration, lobbying, and international trade as top priority issue Global warming was last on the nation's list.