The Multiple Streams Framework

Abstract

With rising ambiguity and turbulence in global affairs, the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) has become a major tool to analyze the policy process in a wide variety of issue areas, countries, and levels of government. In this chapter, we present the current state of MSF thinking, including many innovations that have been suggested in the surge of MSF literature since 2000. We provide an up-to-date presentation and discussion of the framework from which scholars may begin MSF empirical applications or theoretical refinements. We outline the main assumptions of the MSF before presenting the five structural elements of the framework—problems, policies, politics, policy entrepreneurs, and policy windows. Because the MSF was originally developed for the analysis of agenda-setting processes, we discuss how it can be applied to other stages of the policy process (e.g., decision-making or implementation). We then turn to the question of how the framework is adapted and applied in different national contexts, in terms of both theory and method. Finally, we deal with the (alleged and real) limitations of the framework and its future prospects.

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