We use two complementary frameworks to underpin our
approach. Firstly, we draw on Kingdon’s (1995) multiple-streammodel
which offers a process-oriented representation of the key
forces and actors in policy-making. Focusing on agenda-setting,
the process preceding legislative or executive decision-making,
Kingdon (1995) conceptualizes successful policy-making as the
result of a brief coupling of otherwise largely independent streams
of problem identification, policy solution, and politics. A focusing
event, electoral change, or a rapid shift in public opinion open
up a limited window of opportunity seized by ‘‘policy entrepreneurs
[who] hook solutions to problems, proposals to political
momentum, and political events to policy solutions” (Kingdon,
1995: 182). Kingdon (1995) argues that thematic agenda-setting
occurs suddenly in the political stream, whereas potential solutions
are developed incrementally in the policy stream. Similarly,
in the expert-driven policy stream, consensus is achieved through
‘‘processes of persuasion and diffusion [in which] ideas survive
scrutiny according to a set of criteria” (Kingdon, 1995: 159),
whereas political agreement is reached by bargaining around
varied interests. Assuming that solutions are flexible and predate
political opportunity, he suggests that the entrepreneurs
‘‘try to make linkages far before windows open so they can bring
a prepackaged combination of solution, problem, and political
momentum to the window when it does open” (Kingdon, 1995:
183).