As Kingdon noted,
the softening up process is critical in terms of determining
whether a policy actually reaches the government agenda.
The coupling process is the ability to link alternatives with problems.
For elected officials,
policy alternatives must be justified in terms of costs and benefits,
with particular attention to core constituencies,
and must also be workable solutions to the problem.
Although many good ideas may be floating around among policy specialists,
without a specific problem, they are unlikely to reach the government agenda.