ABSTRACT
After a brief comment on the diffi culties about separ at ing a distinct ‘agenda setting’ stage in the policy process, the start ing point for the discus sion of that will be a soci olo gical analysis of the way in which public prob lems emerge. This points us in a very differ ent direc tion to the prescript ive liter at ure’s concern about how policies should be made. The first chal lenge to the prescript ive so called ‘rational model’ came from a liter at ure that sugges ted that most decision making is ‘incre mental’ in nature. The incre ment al ist perspect ive will thus be examined.
