Compare methods

	Advocacy Coalition Framework	Multiple Streams Analysis
Field	Public Policy	Public Policy
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1993	1984
Originator	Paul Sabatier & Hank Jenkins-Smith	John W. Kingdon
Type	Theory of the policy process	Theory of agenda setting and the policy process
Seminal source	Sabatier, P. A., & Jenkins-Smith, H. C. (Eds.) (1993). Policy Change and Learning: An Advocacy Coalition Approach. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. ISBN: 9780813316499	Kingdon, J. W. (1984). Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. New York: Longman. ISBN: 9780321121851
Aliases	ACF, Sabatier-Jenkins-Smith Framework, Advocacy Coalition Approach	MSF, Multiple Streams Framework, Kingdon Multiple Streams, Policy Windows Analysis
Related	4	4
Summary	The Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) is a theory of the policy process developed by Paul Sabatier and Hank Jenkins-Smith from the late 1980s and consolidated in their 1993 volume Policy Change and Learning. It explains policy stability and change over long periods by analysing competing coalitions of actors within a policy subsystem who are bound together by shared beliefs. Policy change is understood as a function of the interaction among these belief-based coalitions, the policy-oriented learning that occurs over time, and external events and shocks that can shift the balance of power among them.	The Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) is a theory of agenda setting and policy change developed by John Kingdon in his 1984 book Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. It explains why some issues rise to prominence and some solutions are adopted while others languish, by modelling the policy process as three largely independent 'streams' — problems, policies, and politics — that flow through the system. Change becomes possible when these streams are joined together at a fleeting 'policy window', often through the efforts of a 'policy entrepreneur'. The framework emphasises ambiguity, timing and chance over orderly, rational problem-solving.