Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Bounded Rationality and Garbage Can Models of Policy-Making

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Contemporary Approaches to Public Policy

Part of the book series: International Series on Public Policy ((ISPP))

Abstract

In this chapter I review the orientations of two related policy frameworks: bounded rationality and multiple streams/garbage cans. I trace their foundations emphasize their strengths, and delineate their weakness. Both do not reject rational behavior but specify alternative models under explicit conditions that more closely approximate what analysts observe in the policy process. They stress computational, cognitive, and organizational limitations. Multiple streams add that greater ambiguity and contestation leads to more politicized, disjointed, and non-rational policy-making. Together they enhance the empirical validity of models of policy-making but also complicate them substantially.

“I have said almost all I think interests you. You should now choose what is most beneficial to the city and all of you”

(Demosthenes, Third Olynthiac, 36).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ackrill, Robert, and Adrian Kay. 2011. Multiple streams in EU policy-making: The case of the 2005 sugar reform. Journal of European Public Policy 18(1): 72–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allison, Graham K. 1971. Essence of decision. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baier, Vicki Eaton, James G. March, and Harald Saetren. 1986. Implementation and ambiguity. Scandinavian Journal of Management Studies 2(3–4): 197–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bendor, Jonathan, Terry M. Moe, and Kenneth W. Shotts. 2001. Recycling the garbage can: An assessment of the research program. American Political Science Review 95(1): 169–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birkland, Thomas A. 1997. After disaster: Agenda setting, public policy and focusing events. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birkland, Thomas A. 2004. The world changed today: Agenda-setting and policy change in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Review of Policy Research 21: 179–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blankenau, Joe. 2001. The fate of national health insurance in Canada and the United States: A multiple streams explanation. Policy Studies Journal 29(1): 38–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bromiley, Philip. 1986. Planning systems in large organizations: A garbage can approach with application to defense PPBS. In Ambiguity and command, eds. James G. March, and Roger Weissinger-Baylon, 120–139. Marshfield: Pitman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brouwer, Stijn, and Frank Biermann. 2011. Towards adaptive management: Examining the strategies of policy entrepreneurs in Dutch water management. Ecology and Society 16(4): 5. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-04315-160405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brunner, Steffen. 2008. Understanding policy change: Multiple streams and emissions trading in Germany. Global Environmental Change 18: 501–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cairney, Paul. 2013. Standing on the shoulders of giants: How do we combine the insights of multiple theories in public policy studies? Policy Studies Journal 41(1): 1–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Zhenhua. 2011. Is the policy window open for high-speed rail in the United States? A perspective from the multiple streams model of policymaking. Transportation Law Journal 38(2): 115–144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, Lee. 1989. Acceptable risk? Making decisions in a toxic environment. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, Michael D. 1986. Artificial intelligence and the dynamic performance of organizational designs. In Ambiguity and command, eds. James G. March, and Roger Weissinger-Baylon, 53–71. Marshfield: Pitman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, Michael D., James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen. 1972. A garbage can model of organizational choice. Administrative Science Quarterly 17: 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corbett, Anne. 2005. Universities and the Europe of knowledge: Ideas, institutions and policy entrepreneurship in European Union higher education policy, 1955–2005. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Crecine, John P. 1986. Defense resource allocation: Garbage can analysis of C3 procurement. In Ambiguity and command, eds. James G. March, and Roger Weissinger-Baylon, 72–119. Marshfield: Pitman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cyert, Richard M., and James G. March. 1963. A behavioral theory of the firm. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durant, Robert F., and Paul F. Diehl. 1989. Agendas, alternatives, and public policy: Lessons from the US policy arena. Journal of Public Policy 9(2): 179–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edelman, Murray. 1971. Politics as symbolic action. Chicago: Markham.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elster, Jon. 1989. Solomonic judgements. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, David, and Sharyn O’Halloran. 1999. Delegating powers: A transaction cost politics approach to policy making under separate powers. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, Martha, and James G. March. 1981. Information in organizations as signal and symbol. Administrative Science Quarterly 26(2): 171–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gordenker, Leon, Roger A. Coate, Christer Johnsson, and Peter Soderholm. 1995. International cooperation in response to AIDS. London: Pinter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guldbrandsson, Karin, and Bjöörn Fossum. 2009. An exploration of the theoretical concepts policy windows and policy entrepreneurs at the Swedish public health arena. Health Promotion International 24(4): 434–444.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, Michael T. 2006. Incrementalism and public policy. Lanham: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henstra, Daniel. 2010. Explaining local policy choices: A multiple streams analysis of municipal emergency management. Canadian Public Administration 53(2): 241–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howlett, Michael. 1998. Predictable and unpredictable policy windows: Institutional and exogenous correlates of Canadian federal agenda-setting. Canadian Journal of Political Science 31(3): 495–524.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khayesi, Meleckidzedeck, and Adjo A. Amekudzi. 2011. Kingdon’s multiple streams model and automobile dependence reversal path: The case of Curitiba, Brazil. Journal of Transport Geography 19(6): 1547–1552.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kingdon, John. 1995. Agendas, alternatives, and public policies, 2nd edn. New York: Harper Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lasswell, Harold D. 1951. The policy orientation. In The policy sciences, eds. Daniel Lerner, and Harold Lasswell, 3–15. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindblom, Charles E. 1959. The science of muddling through. Public Administration Review 19: 79–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindblom, Charles E. 1963. The intelligence of democracy: Decision making through mutual adjustment. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipson, Michael. 2007. A garbage can model of UN peacekeeping. Global Governance 1: 79–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Xinsheng, Eric Lindquist, Arnold Vedlitz, and Kenneth Vincent. 2010. Understanding local policy making: Policy elites’ perceptions of local agenda setting and alternative policy selection. Policy Studies Journal 38(1): 69–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lomi, Alessandro, and J. Richard Harrison, eds. 2012. The garbage can model of organizational choice: Looking forward at forty. Emerald Group: Bingley.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, James G. 1976. The technology of foolishness. In Ambiguity and choice in organizations, eds. James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen, 69–81. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, James G. 1991. How decisions happen in organizations. Human-Computer Interaction 6: 95–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • March, James G. 1994. A primer on decision making. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, James G., and Johan P. Olsen. 1976a. Ambiguity and choice in organizations. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, James G., and Johan P. Olsen. 1976b. Organizational learning and the ambiguity of the past. In Ambiguity and choice in organizations, eds. James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen, 54–68. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, James G., and Johan P. Olsen. 1983. Organizing political life: What administrative reorganization tells us about government. American Political Science Review 77(2): 281–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • March, James G., and Pierre J. Romelaer. 1976. Position and presence in the drift of decisions. In Ambiguity and choice in organizations, eds. James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen, 251–276. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, James G., and Herbert A. Simon. 1958. Organizations. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, James G., and Roger Weissinger-Baylon, eds. 1986. Ambiguity and command. Marshfield: Pitman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matland, Richard E. 1995. Synthesizing the implementation literature: The ambiguity-conflict model of policy implementation. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 5(2): 145–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazzar, Michael J. 2007. The Iraq war and agenda setting. Foreign Policy Analysis 3(1): 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCann, Lisa Marie. 2012. Peacebuilding as global policy: Multiple streams and global policy discourse in the creation of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission. Doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado at Denver.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLendon, Michael K. 2003. Setting the governmental agenda for state decentralization of higher education. The Journal of Higher Education 74(5): 479–515.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mintrom, Michael, and Philippa Norman. 2009. Policy entrepreneurship and policy change. Policy Studies Journal 37(4): 649–667.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mucciaroni, Gary. 1992. The garbage can model and the study of policy making: A critique. Polity 24: 459–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Natali, David. 2004. Europeanization, policy arenas, and creative opportunism: The politics of welfare state reforms in Italy. Journal of European Public Policy 11(6): 1077–1095.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oborn, Eivor, Michael Barrett, and Mark Exworthy. 2011. Policy entrepreneurship in the development of public sector strategy: The case of London health reform. Public Administration 89(2): 325–344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, Johan P. 1976. Reorganization as a garbage can. In Ambiguity and choice in organizations, eds. James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen, 314–337. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, Johan P. 1988. Administrative reform and theories of organization. In Organizing governance, governing organizations, eds. Colin Campbell, and B. Guy Peters, 233–254. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, Johan P. 2001. Garbage cans, new institutionalism, and the study of politics. American Political Science Review 95(1): 191–198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, Johan P. 2008. The ups and downs of bureaucratic organization. Annual Review of Political Science 11: 13–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom, Elinor, Michael Cox, and Edella Schlager. 2014. An assessment of the institutional analysis and development framework and introduction of the social-ecological systems framework. In Theories of the policy process, 3rd edn, eds. Paul A. Sabatier, and Christopher M. Weible, 267–306. Boulder: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Padgett, John F. 1980. Managing garbage can hierarchies. Administrative Science Quarterly 25: 583–604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, B. Guy. 2002. Governance: A garbage can perspective. In Political science series #84. Vienna: Institute for Advanced Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierre, Jon, and B. Guy Peters. 2005. Governing complex societies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Protopsaltis, Spyros. 2008. Theories of the policy process and higher education reform in Colorado: The shaping of the first state postsecondary education voucher system. Doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado at Denver.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, Jeremy. 2006. Policy-making in the EU: Interests, ideas and garbage cans of primeval soup. In European Union: Power and policy-making, 3rd edn, ed. Jeremy Richardson, 3–30. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridde, Valéry. 2009. Policy implementation in an African state: An extension of Kingdon’s multiple streams approach. Public Administration 87(4): 938–954.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, Scott E., and Warren S. Eller. 2010. Participation in policy streams: Testing the separation of problems and solutions in subnational policy systems. Policy Studies Journal 38(2): 199–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rommetveit, Kåre. 1974. Decision-making under a changing normative structure – The case of the location of Norway’s third medical school. Acta Sociologica 17(3): 256–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scharpf, Fritz W. 1997. Games real actors play: Actor-centered institutionalism in policy research. Boulder: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlager, Edella. 2007. A comparison of frameworks, theories, and models of policy processes. In Theories of the policy process, 2nd edn, ed. Paul A. Sabatier, 293–319. Boulder: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, Herbert A. 1957. Models of man. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, Herbert A. 1976. Administrative behavior, 3rd edn. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, Herbert A. 1981. The sciences of the artificial, 2nd edn. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Travis, Rick, and Nikolaos Zahariadis. 2002. A multiple streams model of US foreign aid policy. Policy Studies Journal 30(4): 495–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiner, Stephen S. 1976. Participation, deadlines, and choice. In Ambiguity and choice in organizations, eds. James G. March, Johan P. Olsen, et al., 225–250. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wildavsky, Aaron. 1987. Speaking truth to power, 2nd edn. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, Oliver E. 1985. The economic institutions of capitalism. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zahariadis, Nikolaos. 2003. Ambiguity and choice in public policy: Political decision-making in modern democracies. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zahariadis, Nikolaos. 2005. Essence of political manipulation: Emotion, institutions, andGreekforeign policy. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zahariadis, Nikolaos. 2008a. Ambiguity and choice in European public policy. Journal of European Public Policy 15(4): 514–530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zahariadis, Nikolaos. 2008b. Europeanization as program implementation: Effective and democratic? Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 10(3): 221–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zahariadis, Nikolaos. 2014. Ambiguity and multiple streams. In Theories of the policy process, 3rd edn, eds. Paul A. Sabatier, and Christopher M. Weible, 25–58. Boulder: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zahariadis, Nikolaos. 2015a. Plato’s receptacle: Deadlines, ambiguity, and temporal sorting in public policy. Leviathan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zahariadis, Nikolaos. 2015b. The shield of Herakles: Multiple streams and the emotional endowment effect. EuropeanJournal of Political Research.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rhodes College, University of Pittsburgh, Lyon, France

    Nikolaos Zahariadis

Authors
  1. Nikolaos Zahariadis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. President of the International Public Po, University of Pittsburgh, USA, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    B. Guy Peters

  2. General Secretary of the International P, LAET-ENTPE, University of Lyon, France, Lyon, France

    Philippe Zittoun

Copyright information

© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Zahariadis, N. (2016). Bounded Rationality and Garbage Can Models of Policy-Making. In: Peters, B., Zittoun, P. (eds) Contemporary Approaches to Public Policy. International Series on Public Policy . Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50494-4_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation