Riding the Wave of Opportunity: Termination in Public Policy

By every reasonable standard, a great many policies and programs should be terminated as having outlived their usefulness or having become hopelessly inefficient or ineffective. The fact that they live on begs the question: why? This article attempts (1) to answer this question and (2) in light of its answer, to suggest how to counteract the forces that inhibit termination through a more viable political strategy. The article provides a literature review on the termination cycle within the policy cycle, identifies the forces that need to be counteracted for termination to occur, and mainly explores the applicability of Kingdon's framework to the termination phase of the policy cycle. Finally, in light of this framework, identifies some institutional devices for termination implementation.