Does Data Drive Policymaking? A Multiple Streams Perspective on the Relationship Between Indicators and Agenda Setting

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The multiple streams framework (MSF) hypothesizes changes in problem indicators or data documenting the scale and scope a problem help draw policymaker attention to previously ignored issues. We test this hypothesis by systematically analyzing agenda setting and agenda denial in the United States Congress in response to indicators of the opioid crisis, namely opioid overdose deaths. We confirm that changes in indicators can, in some cases, help facilitate agenda setting and policy change. However, we also show indicator politicization, which refers to the extent to which changes in a particular indicator threaten the economic and political interests of groups operating in the political stream, is inversely related to issue attention. We, therefore, suggest refining existing MSF hypotheses to allow for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between indicators and agenda setting.