Enacting Forward-Looking Policy in a Democracy: Seven lessons from the United States Congress

The purpose of this exploratory study was to develop ideas about the conditions under which the United States Congress can enact forward-looking legislation to address critical issues. The framework for the study is the multiple streams paradigm developed by John Kingdon and modified with insights of subsequent scholars. Conclusions are based on four case studies of significant enactment efforts. Seven propositions about conditions for enactment of forward-looking policies were developed from the cases. Further research is planned to validate the propositions with a larger number of cases.