Private Citizens as Policy Entrepreneurs: Evidence from Autism Mandates and Parental Political Mobilization

• Published in: Policy studies journal 2021-02, Vol.49 (1), p.123-145
• Main Authors: Callaghan, Timothy, Sylvester, Steven
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Autism; Bureaucracy; Citizens; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Generalizability; health; Insurance; Interest groups; Mobilization; participation; policy entrepreneur; Policy making; Politicians; Public policy; Reforms; Social sciences; State policies
• ISSN: 0190-292X; 1541-0072
• DOI: 10.1111/psj.12346

Growing bodies of research in the social sciences point to politicians, bureaucratic officials, interest groups, and other actors who serve as policy entrepreneurs. In this paper, we argue that private citizens can also serve a primary role as policy entrepreneurs. To analyze this phenomenon, we investigate the behavior of private citizens and their role in changing state policies surrounding insurance mandates for autism coverage. Using a thematic analysis of focus groups and interviews conducted with individuals active in the push for autism policy change, we demonstrate that private citizens meet all of the requirements identified for policy entrepreneurs in the existing literature. We then investigate when, why, and how these private citizens step forward into the policy process as entrepreneurs. We show that entrepreneurship occurs when private citizens have needed resources, a sense of duty to fix a policy status quo they see as unjust, and a stake in policy change. We conclude by discussing the importance of our findings to the study of public policy and their generalizability beyond autism policy. 越来越多的社会科学研究指向政策企业家，包括政治家、官僚、利益集团和其他行为者。在本文中，我们认为普通公民也可以作为政策企业家承担重要角色。为了分析这一现象，我们对公民行为及其在改变围绕自闭症保险规定的州政策中的作用进行了调研。通过对焦点小组的主题分析以及对推动自闭症政策变革的个人进行的访谈，我们证明了，个人公民符合现有文献中定义政策企业家的所有要求。之后，我们调查了这些公民何时、为何以及如何作为政策企业家参与政策过程。我们发现，公民成为政策企业家需要满足以下条件：拥有必要的资源，对其认为不公正的政策现状有进行变革的责任感，并且自身与政策变革有一定的利害关系。最后，我们讨论了我们的研究结果对公共政策研究的重要性及其对自闭症政策之外案例的普适性。