The Politics of Problem Definition: Applying and Testing Threshold Models

B. Dan Wood and Alesha Doan

American Journal of Political Science, 2003, vol. 47, issue 4, 640-653

Abstract: The key to understanding agenda setting is how and why conditions become defined as public problems. This process has been dubbed problem definition by past literature, yet past work offers little more than descriptive accounts of the process. We apply a threshold model to explain how problem definition can exhibit both incremental and punctuated change. We then demonstrate the model by explaining redefinition of the sexual harassment issue following the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings. Using Box‐Tiao (1975) and nonlinear time varying parameter regression methods, we show that the hearings permanently altered individual and social nonacceptance of sexual harassment, as well as initiated a process of positive feedback. Given that there are many conditions similar to sexual harassment, and given that disturbances are quite frequent, sudden change should be a common feature of the American system.

Date: 2003
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5907.00045

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:amposc:v:47:y:2003:i:4:p:640-653

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in American Journal of Political Science from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().