3 STRIKES AND YOURE IN - A STREAMS AND WINDOWS MODEL OF INCREMENTAL POLICY CHANGE

While some use has been made of the agenda setting portions of Kingdon 's 1984 ''streams and windows'' model, little attention has been paid to the implications of the full model for policy change. At the same t ime, much is being made of the new ''Three Strikes'' legislation as a radical departure from past crime control efforts. In this article, Ki ngdon's full model is used to provide insights into the policymaking p rocess that resulted in the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforce ment Act (U.S. House of Representatives, 1994) and its ''three strikes '' proviso. This article shows how this proviso is really only an incr emental addition to previous legislation-the 1984 Violent Crime Contro l and Law Enforcement Act. It also demonstrates that Kingdon's model p rovides insights into the process of policy change by identifying the relevant actors, institutions, and political processes, and that his m odel also can form the basis for evaluation of that process.