From perception to public policy: Translating social constructions into policy designs

Numerous scholars, including many of the contributors to this volume, have provided evidence that social constructions often influence the policy design choices of elite decision makers. In this chapter, we undertake a more explicit examination of how the perceptions of groups sometimes become translated into public policy. Through a review of literature from sociology and political science, we develop a set of necessary conditions that typically exist before that process can take place. We examine the utility of those conditions through a historical case study analysis of U.S. policies passed in 1909 and in 1984. Our central argument is that the causal link between social constructions and policy designs is not inevitable and that numerous intervening factors mediate the connection between the two. The case studies illustrate that the characteristics of the target group, the activities of "moral entrepreneurs," and the availability of policy champions or "political entrepreneurs" all help to determine when target group construction is successfully transformed into specifically designed policies. 2005 State University of New York. All rights reserved.

From perception to public policy: Translating social constructions into policy designs Chapter