Ideas and Inducements in Mental Health Policy

Between 1946 and 1963, federal officials sought to change the national practice of providing mental health care, away from state-run mental institutions and toward outpatient care based in local communities. These policy makers relied on two policy instruments, ideas and inducements. Both instruments contributed to unexpectedly significant changes in federal, state, and local policy. I conclude that a policy instrument framework helps to disentangle the strands of successful public management, and that it is useful to think of ideas as policy instruments that offer leverage on policy outcomes.