When "Agendas and Instability in American Politics" appeared fifteen years ago, offering a profoundly original account of how policy issues rise and fall on the national agenda, the "Journal of Politics" predicted that it would 'become a landmark study of public policy making and American politics'.[...]

This text draws on work in political science, economics, cognitive science and psychology to offer an innovative theory of how people and organizations adapt to change and why these adaptations do not always work. The author argues that our decision-making capabilities are rational and adaptive, but[...]