Three streams
Based on interviews about U.S. federal health and transportation policy, Kingdon (1984) argued that the policy process consists of three streams. The problem stream is the process by which conditions come to be seen as problems requiring action, through changes in indicators, focusing events such as disasters or accidents, and feedback from existing programs. The policy stream is the process in which ideas float in a 'primeval soup' within communities of specialists, officials and researchers, are refined, and survive if they are technically feasible and acceptable in value terms. The politics stream consists of the national mood, interest group activity and events such as changes of administration or legislative turnover. This structure is borrowed from the garbage can model, in which problems, solutions, participants and choice opportunities flow separately.
Policy windows and entrepreneurs
The streams normally move separately, but when a major event or change of government opens a policy window, a brief opportunity for coupling arises. If a policy entrepreneur who has long prepared a preferred solution links a problem to that solution and assembles political support, the issue can reach the agenda and policy can change. Because windows close quickly, opportunities are easily missed without alternatives ready in advance. The framework emphasizes that policy change depends heavily on timing, chance and actors' strategies rather than on rational analysis.
Extensions and critiques
Zahariadis (2003) applied the framework to parliamentary systems such as Britain, France and Germany, and Herweg, Huß and Zohlnhöfer (2015) refined it, for example by distinguishing agenda windows from decision windows. Knaggård (2015) added the problem broker, an actor who frames conditions as problems. Reviewing over 300 applications, Jones and colleagues (2016) reported that the framework has been used across many countries and policy areas. Cairney and Jones (2016), however, noted that its wide use has come with loose application of concepts, limiting the accumulation of knowledge. The multiple streams framework is regarded, along with the advocacy coalition framework and punctuated equilibrium theory, as a leading theory of the policy process.
FAQ
- What is the multiple streams framework in simple terms?
- It holds that problems, solutions and political conditions move separately, and policy changes when a 'policy window' opens through a major event or election and the three come together. The person who joins the streams is the policy entrepreneur.
- When do policy windows open?
- They open with focusing events such as disasters or accidents, changes of government, shifts in legislative makeup or changes in public mood. Windows do not stay open long, so alternatives must be ready in advance to seize the opportunity.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Kingdon, J. W. (1984). Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. Boston: Little, Brown. The original source — three streams and the policy window.
- Cohen, M. D., March, J. G., & Olsen, J. P. (1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17(1), 1–25. The garbage can model Kingdon built on — the framework's roots.
- Zahariadis, N. (2003). Ambiguity and Choice in Public Policy: Political Decision Making in Modern Democracies. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Applies the framework beyond the US to parliamentary systems.
- Herweg, N., Huß, C., & Zohlnhöfer, R. (2015). Straightening the three streams: Theorising extensions of the multiple streams framework. European Journal of Political Research, 54(3), 435–449. Refines the framework, separating agenda and decision windows.
- Knaggård, Å. (2015). The multiple streams framework and the problem broker. European Journal of Political Research, 54(3), 450–465. Introduces the 'problem broker' who frames conditions as problems.
- Jones, M. D., Peterson, H. L., Pierce, J. J., Herweg, N., Bernal, A., Lamberta Raney, H., & Zahariadis, N. (2016). A river runs through it: A multiple streams meta-review. Policy Studies Journal, 44(1), 13–36. A meta-review of hundreds of applications across fields and countries.
- Cairney, P., & Jones, M. D. (2016). Kingdon's multiple streams approach: What is the empirical impact of this universal theory? Policy Studies Journal, 44(1), 37–58. Widely used but cumulatively thin? A balanced assessment.
- Béland, D., & Howlett, M. (2016). The role and impact of the multiple-streams approach in comparative policy analysis. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 18(3), 221–227. The framework's place in comparative policy analysis.