Policy entrepreneurs and focusing events: Congressional agenda setting after Hurricane Katrina

Scholars have identified a significant role for major events in the agenda setting stages of the policy process. These 'focusing events', usually crises or disasters, can act as catalysts for drastic and rapid policy changes by elucidating policy failures and opening agenda space for policy advocates to advance new proposals. The unique and infrequent opportunity an event presents for rapid agenda change requires the skill and devotion of policy entrepreneurs. Focusing events are important in the agenda setting process, yet we know little about the specific conditions under which advocates can use an event to change the policy agenda. In addition, although policy entrepreneurs are an integral part of the process, we do not know what types of entrepreneurs participate after major events, or what tactics and arguments they employ to achieve agenda change.;This study addresses this knowledge gap by examining the role of policy entrepreneurs in agenda setting after Hurricane Katrina. I evaluated seven hypotheses about the types of policy entrepreneurs that attempted agenda change, the tactics they employed, and the arguments and causal stories they advanced to change the policy agenda. I conducted a content analysis of the testimony of 240 witnesses from 41 congressional hearings held during the first six months after Hurricane Katrina.;The results revealed that scope and impact are fundamental determinants of the agenda setting potential of an event. Hurricane Katrina created unique opportunities for policy entrepreneurs to change the institutional agenda; it opened agenda space for new participants and ideas. Significantly, advocates from outside of the affected policy domain and experts successfully linked their issues and proposals to the event. They blamed existing policies for the failures of Hurricane Katrina and argued that their policy proposals would prevent future disasters. They engaged in issue expansion and attempted to bolster support for their proposals. This research increases our knowledge of policy entrepreneurs, as it is one of the first studies focusing on entrepreneurial tactics and arguments after a focusing event.