The most important contribution which sociology has made to public policy research is probably its analysis of framing. Sociologists typically argue that, throughout the policy process, issues need to be framed in certain ways in order to receive attention and to be successfully resolved. The important point here is that what matters is not so much issues per se but rather how those issues are escribed and politically packaged, which to large extent determines the future political handling of them. More recently, framing has found its way into public policy through the constructivist approach to public policy (see Gottweis, this volume)