Smokefree policies (SFPs) have diffused throughout the US and worldwide. However, the development of SFPs in the difficult policy environment of tobacco-producing states and economies worldwide has not been well-explored. In 2007, Tennessee, the third largest tobacco producer in the US, enacted the Non-Smoker Protection Act (NSPA). This study utilizes the multiple streams model to provide understanding of why and how this policy was developed by triangulating interviews with key stakeholders and legislative debates with archival documents. In June 2006, the Governor unexpectedly announced support for SFP, which created a window of opportunity for policy change. The Campaign for Healthy and Responsible Tennessee, a health coalition, seized this opportunity and worked with the administration and the Tennessee Restaurant Association to negotiate a comprehensive SFP, however, a weaker bill was used by the legislative leadership to develop the NSPA. Although the Governor and the Tennessee Restaurant Association's support generated an environment for 100 % SFP, health groups did not fully capitalize on this environmental change and settled for a weak policy with several exemptions. This study suggests the importance for proponents of policy change to understand changes in their environment and be willing and able to capitalize on these changes.

The thesis analyses the 2013 Cohesion Policy reform as a case of European integration. By revisiting neofunctionalism and combining it with the Multiple Streams approach, it is possible to provide a new angle to the phenomenon of the Cohesion Policy’s integration into the European economic governance framework. The thesis utilises qualitative content analysis to systematically analyse the dynamics that influenced the reform process and eventually lead to the establishment of new integrative linkages. It is revealed how the integration dynamics originated in the economic policy arena and spilled over into the Cohesion Policy reform. Consequently, the thesis concludes that the neofunctionalist concept of functional spillover remains a powerful analytical tool and it is shown in what way neofunctional mechanisms continue to materialise in the European polity.

Denna uppsats utgår från svensk krishantering av tre nationella kriser; Estoniakatastrofen, Flodvågskatastrofen och Flyktingkrisen . Syftet med arbetet är att ta reda på hur dessa kriser har format statens sätt att hantera kriser. Arbetet ämnar också att försöka skapa en förståelse för vad som händer i nationella organisationer när en kris inträffar. Arbetets har använt kvalitativ metod som går ut på att göra en jämförelse mellan de olika kriserna. I analysen presenteras svaren på frågeställningar, med ett antal olika exempel på policyförändringar som har skett, bl.a. inrättandet av ett krishanteringsorgan och skapandet av en ny myndighet. Analysen presenterar också en bild av varför kriser förändras, eller inte förändras, genom att titta på när s.k. policyfönster öppnas och stängs. Slutsatsen är att krishanteringen ständigt förändras, om än långsamt. Att vänta på att en ny kris ska inträffa för att förändra politiken går inte.

The tripartite alliance is an unusual structure of governance which consolidates the rule of the African National Congress (ANC) as a dominant party through three parties each with a unique ideological trajectory and constituency base. The structure is a unique space for policy formulation and agenda setting and often finds itself in conflict about policy approaches and directives. In 2012 the National Development Plan (NDP) came into fruition and the period prior to its production saw policy consensus on developmental policy approaches within the Tripartite Alliance as a structure. Using this instance of policy making within the Tripartite Alliance this thesis asks: How does policy happen with in the Tripartite Alliance. To answer this question, the public policy scholarship framework known as the Multiple Streams Framework as founded by John Kingdon, breaks policy processes into three distinct themes, analysing exactly how policy occurs in the structure. This analysis will therefore test the theory of the Multiple Streams Framework on the case study of development policy making within the tripartite alliance between 2007 and 2012, discerning how useful it is in answering how policy happens within the structure.

Soil is essentially irreversibly damaged when covered with impervious artificialsurfaces, a process known as soil sealing. Previous research on soil sealing policiesmainly studied strategies for effective local policy implementation. However, ifeffective implementation of soil sealing policies is to be considered, soil sealing policiesshould be on the local agenda. Therefore, this master thesis explored the local agendasetting of soil sealing. It drew on the Multiple Streams Approach and studied the agendasetting with respect to problem recognition, policy generation and actors’ engagement.Four Swedish municipalities with urban areas where soil sealing was already on thelocal agenda were examined. An analysis of policy documents and interviews withmunicipal civils servants and politicians enabled a comparison of the local agendasetting processes of soil sealing. The results showed general similarities in the problemrecognition by indicators and feedback, but differences in the importance of focusingevents. In one municipality, a focusing event in the form of a flooding seems to havepushed the issue of soil sealing to the local agenda. A powerful symbol, with whichproblems with soil sealing were recognized as a problem of the ethnicity of the citizens,was arguably used in one municipality. The role of consultants, the importance ofinspiration from other municipalities and the value acceptability of soil sealing policiesin the policy generation process were similar across all municipalities. In onemunicipality, researchers’ involvement was significant in the policy generation process.Regarding actors’ engagement, this master thesis showed that politicians were notconsidered as engaged with soil sealing by civil servants across all municipalities.However, according to all interviewed politicians, they considered themselves asengaged with issues of soil sealing. Moreover, policy entrepreneurs most probably hadan important role in the agenda setting of soil sealing in one municipality only.

In 2010 the municipality of Norrköping took a decision to implement a social impact bond. This decision was the starting point for a wave of similar decision around the Swedish municipalities. Södertälje took the decision to implement their social impact bond in early 2013. Even though much of the policy was the same as in Norrköping, it didn’t generate the result expected and already in 2018 it was reconstructed and brought back into the daily business. The purpose of this study is to explain the policy decisions taken, both in connection with the introduction of the policy in 2013 and the transformation done in 2018. The analytic framework used to explain these policy changes is based on the Multiple Streams Theory. The study is based on a qualitative research method with information taken from documents and interviews. These are aimed to help us gathering the empirical material needed, which consist of official control documents from the current municipality and interviews with pertinent people who worked within the policy or who have good knowledge of the phenomenon of social impact bonds. Our main conclusions are that the policy decision to implement the social impact bond, did couple the three streams; problem, political and policy, so this decision was done within an open policy window. However, the decision to reconstruct the social impact bond didn’t couple the streams in the same way and because of that a policy window didn't open.

The purpose of this qualitative ethnographic study was to explore citizen perceptions of the phenomenon of law enforcement shootings involving an imitation firearm. A secondary purpose was to document knowledge of current imitation firearm policies and thoughts on the effectiveness of said policies. Kingdon's multiple streams approach was used as the theoretical framework. This theory addressed the sources of power that influence policy decisions, the stakeholders involved in agenda setting, and factors that shape policy debates. Data were collected using a combination of secondary data analysis, field observations and semi structured, face-to-face interviews with 23 citizens. Sampling strategies included a combination of snowball, purposeful, and variation sampling to identify interviewees from four specific subject groups: law enforcement, parents of children aged 10-17-years-old, citizens with no law enforcement experience and no children aged 10-17-years-old, and leaders in the community. Results from domain and taxonomic coding revealed the themes of safety, responsibility, and accountability. Specifically, subjects wanted to ensure both law enforcement and citizens were safe in the community, they wanted to see parents take responsibility for their children, and they wanted to see legislation that held people accountable for their actions when using imitation firearms during the commission of a crime. Findings may be used for positive social change by enhancing imitation firearm policies, recognizing ways to improve data tracking, and identifying educational opportunities for both citizens and law enforcement. Enhanced firearm policies can also help mitigate unnecessary shootings and reduce community conflicts between citizens and police.

The Swedish Defence bill of 2015 demonstrated a rapid change in policy objectives, consequently moving away from an expeditionary force and converging into a territorial defence force. Previous research has attributed and explained the quick shift to the geostrategic unbalance that followed after the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Yet, major policy changes are often years in the making, indicating that there must be additional explanations to the rapid shift. By applying a modified version of John Kingdon’s (2011) Multiple Streams Framework on the case of Sweden changing its security and defence policy, this thesis examines the policy process that preceded the official policy decision. The thesis provides further explanation to why the rapid policy change occurred by utilising qualitative content analysis. The analysis shows that the new policy was adopted due to several factors: one being the attention brought to several problems pertaining to the previous policy, another one was found in the timing between focusing events and the on-going work process of the Swedish defence commission, and lastly, strong actors within the policy field were in favour of a change in policy. The thesis concludes that the presence of several factors within the processes of politics, policy and problems enabled the rapid policy change.

Despite the existence of land use and environmental protection policies designed to provide guidance on land development, some projects can still be contentious. As the number of Muslims and mosques in the United States are increasing, little is known about the problematic conditions that Muslims may experience when attempting to site a new mosque, community center, or cemetery. The purpose of this study was to develop a deeper understanding about the experiences and perceptions of those involved in the failed siting of a controversial mosque, community center, and cemetery project in a U.S. West Coast state. The multiple streams framework was used to examine the problem, politics, and policy streams that occurred throughout the case. The research question addressed the key elements that led to community protests and the ensuing state lawsuit. A qualitative case study design was used to analyze literature, news reports, government reports, and the loosely-structured interviews of 15 purposefully-selected community stakeholders. The interview data were coded and categorized for thematic analysis. Results indicated that navigating the politics stream was especially difficult for the mosque applicants because they did not anticipate much resistance and were unaware of community members' concerns about water table contamination. Implications for positive social change include providing policy makers with insight into conflict that may arise in the siting of a mosque, community center, or cemetery and potentially reducing conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims.

The environmental, social, and economic value of Indonesia’s tropical forests has generated extensive interest and scrutiny, both local and global. International stakeholders are heavily involved in Indonesian forest policies, including in the issue of deforestation, both because of their immense interest in the Indonesian environment, and because of Indonesia’s lack of development capacity. Many of domestic and international stakeholders participating in the policy-making processes with regard to Indonesian forests have discrete views and concerns. A successful policy would be one that meets all the requirements of all such actors. This study was conducted to analyze the policy process including some questions about Indonesia’s policies for the prevention of deforestation: 1. ‘When are such policies formed?’, 2. ‘Who is involved in the policy-making process?’, 3. How are the resulting policies implemented?’ Appropriate research methods and analysis frameworks for the examination of policy processes were developed for this study and were applied to Indonesia’s deforestation prevention policies. The current study interviewed 72 of the 114 people who were involved in the policy-making process identified through this study, to analyze the means and motives that are involved in the policy-making process and to ascertain the respondents’ interactions with the other actors. The environmental contexts of the development of guidelines were examined by analyzing the streams of problems, politics, and policies through the Multiple Streams Framework to assess the manner in which the current Indonesian deforestation prevention policies have been established. Subsequently, the actors involved in the policy-making processes and the interactions between them were identified to create a structure of the policy network. Further, the parties that exert a significant influence on the deforestation prevention policy were identified. The characteristics of this policy network were confirmed, and the general network was classified into the Relation Network, Information Network and Trust Network. The result of the analyses reveals that the situation pertaining to the deforestation of Indonesian tropical forests has not substantially improved, even though the problem of forest degradation has been recognized in Indonesia for a long time now. The burden of environmental duties demanded from Indonesia by the international community has increased. As Indonesia has transformed politically from a long-standing military regime to a democratic government, its municipalities have gradually been strengthened and various levels of stakeholders including regional governments, NGO, and the private sector, have become actively invested in Indonesian policy-design. At the same time, international attention, and demand for preserving Indonesian forests have become more specific. Indonesia operated through a powerful presidential system and its president exerts much authority over the country’s society. In such a situation, the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)’s announcement at the G20 Summit in 2009 opened the Policy Window. President SBY declared that Indonesia would reduce emissions of greenhouse gas up to 41% 2020. This proclamation received much attention from both domestic and international groups, and led to sweeping changes in Indonesia’s forest policy. In all three of the above-mentioned sub-networks, the overwhelmingly powerful influence of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the main policy designer of the Indonesian deforestation prevention policy, was confirmed. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry was found to obtain the highest centrality value in the Relation Network and the gap between this actor and the other policy actors was extremely wide. However, the centrality value of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry was relatively low in the Information and Trust Networks, and this centrality was distributed to the other actors. These outcomes imply that not only the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, but also other organizations such as intergovernmental organizations and academic organizations contribute relevant information with regard to the policy, that the information dependency and trust of the other actors are decentralized, and that these other actors primarily depend on and trust international donors (e.g., World Bank, UN-REDD+ Task Force) and academics who are also interested actors in the formation of the forest policy of Indonesia. Many of the interested actors, especially intergovernmental organizations, academic organizations, NGOs, have access to the policy network of Indonesia’s deforestation prevention policy without any significant barriers. Hence, this policy network may be termed an open system. However, the internal policy actors are judged to be rigid in terms of their systems. The policy network for deforestation prevention has also emerged as a partially vertical hierarchy, as the Indonesian central government’s powerful initiative leads and directs the policy network along with a small number of other influential bodies. According to the classification of policy network types proposed by Marsh and Rhode (1992), the policy network for the prevention of deforestation in Indonesia may be described as an Issue Network with a vertical hierarchy.