26th Annual Student Research Conference
Combating the Counterfeits: The Agenda-Setting Process of the Anticounterfeiting Consumer Protection Act of 1996
Amanda C. Shetler
Dr. Candy Young, Faculty Mentor
A flammable t-shirt. A General Motors car brake filled with wood chips. Grocery stores in sixteen states stocked with cases of potentially harmful cans of the popular baby formula Similac®. In the mid-1990s, the counterfeiting of well-known and necessary consumer goods caught lawmakers' attention. The result was a small piece of legislation outfitted with big boxing gloves: the Anticounterfeiting Consumer Protection Act of 1996. A single component of a larger policy study, this specific paper analyzes the agenda-setting stage of the American public policymaking process. John W. Kingdons (2003) Policy Stream Model is largely confirmed by this single-case study, as well as the concepts of Cobb and Elder (1995), the paradigms of business sector involvement and elite theory offered by Miliband (1995) and Mills (1995), and the culture of organizational interest proposed by Halperin (1974). Together, these models provide a thorough understanding of the initial phase of policy creation.
Keywords: Public Policy, Policymaking, Agenda-Setting, Counterfeiting, Crime
Topic(s):Political Science
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 210-2
Location: MG 1000
Time: 9:45