- The Oxford Handbook of Classics In Public Policy and Administration
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- What Makes a Classic?: Identifying and Revisiting the Classics of Public Policy and Administration
- Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization
- David B. Truman, The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion
- Robert K. Merton et al., A Reader in Bureaucracy
- Harold D. Lasswell, The Decision Process: Seven Categories of Functional Analysis
- C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite
- Charles E. Lindblom, “The Science of Muddling Through”
- Thomas R. Dye, Politics, Economics and the Public: Policy Outcomes in the American States
- Herbert Kaufman, The Forest Ranger: A Study in Administrative Behavior
- E. E. Schattschneider, The Semi-Sovereign People: A Realist’s View of Democracy in America
- V. O. Key, Jr., Public Opinion and American Democracy
- Michel Crozier, The Bureaucratic Phenomenon
- Theodore J. Lowi, “American Business, Public Policy, Case Studies and Political Theory”
- Aaron Wildavsky, The Politics of the Budgetary Process
- Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups
- Theodore J. Lowi, The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States
- Jack L. Walker, “The Diffusion of Innovations among the American States”
- Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States
- Graham T. Allison, The Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis
- George J. Stigler, “The Theory of Economic Regulation”
- Michael D. Cohen, James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen, “A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice”
- Anthony Downs, “Up and Down with Ecology: The ‘Issue-Attention’ Cycle”
- Carol H. Weiss, Evaluation Research: Methods for Studying Programs and Policies
- Jeffrey L. Pressman and Aaron B. Wildavsky, Implementation
- Oliver E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications
- Hugh Heclo, “Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment”
- Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Service
- Richard Rose, Do Parties Make a Difference?
- John W. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies
- Mathew D. McCubbins and Thomas Schwartz, “Congressional Oversight Overlooked: Police Patrols versus Fire Alarms”
- Terry M. Moe, “The New Economics of Organization”
- Mathew D. McCubbins, Roger G. Noll, and Barry R. Weingast, “Administrative Procedures as Instruments of Political Control”
- Paul A. Sabatier, “An Advocacy Coalition Framework of Policy Change and the Role of Policy-Oriented Learning Therein”
- Fritz W. Scharpf, “The Joint-Decision Trap: Lessons from German Federalism and European Integration”
- James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why they Do it
- Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
- Christopher Hood, “A Public Management for All Seasons?”
- Ian Ayres and John Braithwaite, Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate
- Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones, Agendas and Instability in American Politics
- Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community: Empirical Foundations, Causal Mechanisms, and Policy Implications
- Peter A. Hall and David Soskice, Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
E. E. Schattschneider’s short book, The Semi-Sovereign People: A Realist’s View of Democracy in America (1960), is an analysis of the functioning of US democracy, especially the struggle between “privatization” and “socialization” of issues as well as the competition for space on a crowded political agenda. Its major contribution was to develop the concept of agenda-setting, the “conflict of conflicts,” as an essential dimension of the policy process. Intended as a “defense of parties” manifesto against the then-popular group theories of politics, Schattschneider’s book was part of the elitist–pluralist debate in its time as well as leading to a variety of later, more empirical studies on various dimensions of the policy process. Schattschneider’s ideas have inspired many subsequent studies on agenda-setting, both in the US and abroad. This chapter examines the longer-term impact of these ideas as well as the book’s shortcomings, such as lack of attention to the media.
Keywords: Elmer E. Schattschneider, Semi-Sovereign People, democracy, politics, public policy, agenda-setting, America, conflict of conflicts
Donley T. Studlar (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1975) became a Professor in the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde in 2013 after almost 40 years in US higher education. His research on comparative politics and public policy in Western democracies has been widely published, with over 100 articles in international journals and five books, including Global Tobacco Control: Power, Policy, Governance, and Transfer (Palgrave, 2012). His current research concerns morality policy as well as comparisons of noncontagious public health issues (tobacco, alcohol, nutrition/obesity).
Access to the complete content on Oxford Handbooks Online requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription.
Please subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.
For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us.
- The Oxford Handbook of Classics In Public Policy and Administration
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- What Makes a Classic?: Identifying and Revisiting the Classics of Public Policy and Administration
- Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization
- David B. Truman, The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion
- Robert K. Merton et al., A Reader in Bureaucracy
- Harold D. Lasswell, The Decision Process: Seven Categories of Functional Analysis
- C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite
- Charles E. Lindblom, “The Science of Muddling Through”
- Thomas R. Dye, Politics, Economics and the Public: Policy Outcomes in the American States
- Herbert Kaufman, The Forest Ranger: A Study in Administrative Behavior
- E. E. Schattschneider, The Semi-Sovereign People: A Realist’s View of Democracy in America
- V. O. Key, Jr., Public Opinion and American Democracy
- Michel Crozier, The Bureaucratic Phenomenon
- Theodore J. Lowi, “American Business, Public Policy, Case Studies and Political Theory”
- Aaron Wildavsky, The Politics of the Budgetary Process
- Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups
- Theodore J. Lowi, The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States
- Jack L. Walker, “The Diffusion of Innovations among the American States”
- Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States
- Graham T. Allison, The Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis
- George J. Stigler, “The Theory of Economic Regulation”
- Michael D. Cohen, James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen, “A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice”
- Anthony Downs, “Up and Down with Ecology: The ‘Issue-Attention’ Cycle”
- Carol H. Weiss, Evaluation Research: Methods for Studying Programs and Policies
- Jeffrey L. Pressman and Aaron B. Wildavsky, Implementation
- Oliver E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications
- Hugh Heclo, “Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment”
- Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Service
- Richard Rose, Do Parties Make a Difference?
- John W. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies
- Mathew D. McCubbins and Thomas Schwartz, “Congressional Oversight Overlooked: Police Patrols versus Fire Alarms”
- Terry M. Moe, “The New Economics of Organization”
- Mathew D. McCubbins, Roger G. Noll, and Barry R. Weingast, “Administrative Procedures as Instruments of Political Control”
- Paul A. Sabatier, “An Advocacy Coalition Framework of Policy Change and the Role of Policy-Oriented Learning Therein”
- Fritz W. Scharpf, “The Joint-Decision Trap: Lessons from German Federalism and European Integration”
- James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why they Do it
- Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
- Christopher Hood, “A Public Management for All Seasons?”
- Ian Ayres and John Braithwaite, Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate
- Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones, Agendas and Instability in American Politics
- Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community: Empirical Foundations, Causal Mechanisms, and Policy Implications
- Peter A. Hall and David Soskice, Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage
- Index
