Cross currents: The interaction of problems, policies, and politics in the evolution of federal legislation concerning higher education .

摘要

This dissertation analyzes the successful, or failed, passage of federal legislation to aid American higher education. Through the lens of John W. Kingdon's policy streams frame, the national university movement, the Morrill Act, the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, the National Defense Education Act, the Higher Education Facilities Act, and the Higher Education Act reveal, through their legislative histories, the impact of problem recognition, policy alternatives, and political climate on the ultimate outcome of a policy proposal.;This study evaluates the process by which these three streams of problems, policies, and politics "couple," or fail to link, in order to secure or thwart successful passage of a particular piece of legislation. Further consideration is given to the significance of the policy entrepreneur, who assisted this coupling, and a policy window, which proved the opportune time for passage, as components of the ongoing legislative process in Kingdon's frame. Additional scrutiny reveals the stream bed of philosophy. This underlying foundation impacts all three of the streams and opens the door for possible reevaluation of Kingdon's original conceptualization of the policy streams theory.