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This essay reviews recent literature on American economic policymaking. It first asks, what light can contemporary research on economic policymaking shed on current circumstances? Second, where do policy process researchers go from here? This paper explores the extant literature under three broad themes. The first will deal with the extensive research into income inequality. The second will discuss the electoral implications of economic conditions. The third will analyze the institutional responses to economic developments. The final section will offer suggestions for future scholarship. Adapted from the source document.

Research on agenda setting seems to have arrived at a second stage in its development. In recent years, it has moved beyond both metaphors and popular units of analysis to study the mechanisms and dynamics of agenda setting in the public policy process. This essay synthesizes the last two years of research on agenda setting. It classifies the divergent work into three broad categories. The first focuses on information processing and punctuated equilibrium processes. The second addresses the attempts by scholars to move beyond subsystems as a unit of analysis. The third addresses the role of the bureaucracy in agenda setting, particularly during crises. The final section of the essay concludes by discussing future directions for research. Adapted from the source document.

This contribution addresses political limits to the processing of policy problems in the United States. Our foci are the forces that limit policymakers' attention to different aspects of problems and how this affects the prospects for problem resolution. We theorize about three sets of forces: interest engagement, linkages among relevant institutions for policymaking, and partisan conflict. We show how the interplay of these forces limits efforts to address complex problems. Based on secondary accounts, we consider these underlying dynamics for ten complex problems. These include the thorny problems of the financial crisis, climate change, and health care; the persistent problems of K-12 education, drug abuse, and food safety; and the looming problems associated with critical infrastructure, the obesity epidemic, ocean health, and terrorism and extreme events. From these accounts we identify different patterns that we label fractured, allied, bureaucratic, and anemic policymaking.

This contribution addresses political limits to the processing of policy problems in the United States. Our foci are the forces that limit policymakers' attention to different aspects of problems and how this affects the prospects for problem resolution. We theorize about three sets of forces: interest engagement, linkages among relevant institutions for policymaking, and partisan conflict. We show how the interplay of these forces limits efforts to address complex problems. Based on secondary accounts, we consider these underlying dynamics for ten complex problems. These include the thorny problems of the financial crisis, climate change, and health care; the persistent problems of K-12 education, drug abuse, and food safety; and the looming problems associated with critical infrastructure, the obesity epidemic, ocean health, and terrorism and extreme events. From these accounts we identify different patterns that we label fractured, allied, bureaucratic, and anemic policymaking.