Abstract
Although the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) is frequently used to explain agenda setting and decision making across a variety of policy domains, it has been criticized for failing to contribute to theoretically rigorous and empirically falsifiable policy scholarship. This study argues that by explicitly attending to the institutional context in which a policy process occurs—a previously under-articulated aspect of the MSF—scholars can better develop and test theory about the framework’s components under delimited conditions. This approach is demonstrated through the development and analysis of a case study of transnational policymaking in the Colorado River Delta. By attending to how key MSF variables interact with features of the process’s collaborative institutional context, this study identifies case-specific drivers of policy change and develops broader theory about the mechanisms by which these factors may influence policymaking in similar institutional settings.
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Interview data are not publicly available, per Institutional Review Board confidentiality requirements on human subjects data. All secondary data are cited in full in the paper. All interviewees provided informed consent.
Notes
In Mexico, the IBWC is called the Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas, abbreviated as CILA.
While the on-going process does not have a formal name, it is sometimes referred to as the United States-Mexico Binational Forum for the Colorado River Delta (Karambelkar and Gerlak, 2020).
This “dedication of water to the river [for the environmental flow component] was shared among… Mexico, the US, and… the environmental organizations. So it wasn't just [the NGOs] who provided the water. It was important that Mexico and the U.S.…share that kind of responsibility” (M319_02).
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank anonymous reviewers and participants in the Western Political Science Association annual conference (2019) for their feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript, as well as the scholars and policy process participants who shared their knowledge about the Minute 319 process through interviews and writings.
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Interview research was supported by the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy.
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Koebele, E.A. When multiple streams make a river: analyzing collaborative policymaking institutions using the multiple streams framework. Policy Sci 54, 609–628 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-021-09425-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-021-09425-3