The DOI matches its Crossref record; 86 of the 86 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Kingdon's Multiple Streams Approach: What Is the Empirical Impact of this Universal Theory?
Abstract
While John Kingdon's Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) remains a key reference point in the public policy literature, few have attempted to assess MSA holistically. To assess its broader impact and trends in usage, we combine in‐depth analysis of representative studies, with comprehensive coverage of MSA‐inspired articles, to categorize its impact. We find that Kingdon's work makes two separate contributions. First, it has contributed to the development of “evolutionary” policy theories such as punctuated equilibrium. Second, it has prompted a large, dedicated, and often empirical, literature. However, most MSA empirical applications only engage with broader policy theory superficially. The two contributions are oddly independent of each other. We argue that these trends in application are due largely to its intuitive appeal and low “barrier to entry.” Drawing on other policy approaches, we offer suggestions to improve the MSA‐inspired literature.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
Ostrom, E. (1990) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511807763 · Cited by 20,653
Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
Field, B. C., & Ostrom, E. (1992) · Land Economics · doi:10.2307/3146384 · Cited by 18,859
Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies
Perry, J., & Kingdon, J. W. (1985) · Journal of Policy Analysis and Management · doi:10.2307/3323801 · Cited by 11,225
Agendas, alternatives, and public policies
Kingdon, J. W. (1984) · Cited by 9,299
A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice
Cohen, M. D., March, J. G., & Olsen, J. P. (1972) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2392088 · Cited by 7,917
Policy paradigms, social learning, and the state: The case of economic policymaking in Britain
Hall, P. A. (1993) · Comparative Politics · doi:10.2307/422246 · Cited by 7,369
Agendas and instability in American politics
(1993) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.31-0574 · Cited by 5,981
Policy Change and Learning: An Advocacy Coalition Approach
Roberts, A., Sabatier, P. A., & Jenkins-Smith, H. C. (1994) · Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques · doi:10.2307/3551961 · Cited by 3,628
Theories of the Policy Process
Sabatier, P. (2019) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780367274689 · Cited by 3,490
Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies
Streeck, W., & Thelen, K. (2005) · Cited by 3,427
Cited by
Cairney, P., & Oliver, K. (2017) · Health Research Policy and Systems · doi:10.1186/s12961-017-0192-x · Cited by 526
Self-citationLooking through a policy window with tinted glasses: Setting the agenda for U.S. AI policy
Schiff, D. S. (2023) · Review of Policy Research · doi:10.1111/ropr.12535 · Cited by 55
Leveraging material efficiency as an energy and climate instrument for heavy industries in the EU
Hernandez, A. G., Cooper-Searle, S., Skelton, A. C. H., & Cullen, J. M. (2018) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2018.05.055 · Cited by 32
Pallathadka, H., & Roy, P. D. (2025) · Integrated Journal for Research in Arts and Humanities · doi:10.55544/ijrah.5.3.8 · Cited by 2
Metadata
- Authors
- Cairney, P., & Jones, M. D.
- Venue
- Policy Studies Journal
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015-06-17
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 37-58
- ISSN
- 0190-292X (ISSN-L)
- 1541-0072
- OpenAlex
- W2148804058
- Cited by
- 398
- References
- 86
- FWCI
- 174.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Kingdon's Multiple Streams Approach: What Is the Empirical Impact of this Universal Theory? https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1111/psj.12111
- The paper
- Cairney, P., & Jones, M. D. (2016). Kingdon's Multiple Streams Approach: What Is the Empirical Impact of this Universal Theory? Policy Studies Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12111
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
