The assumption that there is a single policy cycle focused on a major
piece of legislation oversimplifies the usual process of multiple, interacting
cycles involving numerous policy proposals and statutes at
multiple levels of government. For example, abortion activists are currently
involved in litigation in the federal courts and most state courts,
in new policy proposals in Washington and most of the states, in the
implementation of other proposals at the federal and state levels, and in
the evaluation of all sorts of programs and proposed programs. They’re
also continually trying to affect the conceptualization of the problem.
In such a situation—which is common—focusing on “a policy cycle”
makes very little sense.