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The Conditioning Effects of Policy Salience and Complexity on American Political Institutions
Author(s) -
EshbaughSoha Matthew
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-0072.2006.00167.x
Subject(s) - typology , salience (neuroscience) , politics , public policy , incentive , presidency , public administration , political science , political economy , sociology , economics , law , psychology , microeconomics , anthropology , cognitive psychology
Years ago, Bill Gormley introduced public policy scholars to a new and innovative salience‐ complexity typology for regulatory policies. This typology not only helps scholars catalog numerous policies into distinct categories, but also helps explain variation in political processes. Specifically, different policies provide different incentives for political actors to be involved in policymaking. Salience encourages activity on the part of elected officials; complexity often requires policymaking outside of the public sphere. In this article, I extend Gormley’s salience‐complexity typology to more than just regulatory policies and confirm that levels of institutional activity vary across this range of public policies. I also expand on Gormley’s contribution by differentiating the distinct impacts that policy type has on the policy activities of Congress and the presidency, and propose that institutional activity differs according to the dynamics of a policy’s salience.