ABSTRACT
An agenda is a list or schedule of things to be done. Policymakers are very busy people and their attention is a scarce and highly valued resource. Public policymakers also have their agendas. Institutional agendas are the decision gates through which policy actions must pass. Policy maps offer a framework or starting point for analyzing the seemingly random trajectories of individual public policy inputs. Bureaucracy appointed officials responsible for assembling and delivering policy outputs. The presidential agenda is constrained by the resources at hand and the attention spans of Congress, the bureaucracy, and the American public. Courts generate policy inputs and move policymaking forward in very different ways and employ very different tools for making policy than legislatures, executives, or bureaucracies. The system is important, and both policymakers and policy entrepreneurs must 'work the system' to succeed. Compromise and coalition-building as well as gridlock are the hallmarks of American lawmaking.
