20th Annual Student Research Conference
Social Science
The 1953 Flammable Fabrics Act: A Case Study
Tyler I. Page
Dr. Candy Young, Faculty Mentor
This theory-infirming and confirming case study examines the 1953 Flammable Fabrics Act using government documents. This study follows the bill from its first mention in Congress in 1947 until the present time, specifically focusing on the agenda setting process, formulation, adoption, implementation, and concluding with an evaluation of the effectiveness of this policy. Various models from the field of public policy are used to provide the basis for study of each of these phases including John Kingdon’s policy window model, Kenneth Meier’s model of regulatory subsystems, Graham Allison’s Governmental Politics Model of decision-making, and a model of effective implementation synthesized he models of George Edwards III and Daniel Mazmanian and Paul Sabatier. Additionally, aspects of the Flammable Fabrics Act policy process support those who assert pluralistic models of policy processes and also suggest an instance in which Kingdon’s streams model needs to be refined.
Keywords: public policy, regulatory policy
Topic(s):Political Science
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 49-1
Location: VH 1412
Time: 1:15 pm