Assumptive Worlds
by Elese Washines
1. Marshall, Mitchell, & Wirt introduce the theory of assumptive worlds as the common action principles understood by all state policy actors and learned from their socialization in the culture of politics (p. 347)
2. The perceptual screen of policy makers
2.1. Perceptions relate to the expected behaviors, rituals, and judgments about feasible policy options (p. 386)
2.2. "Policymakers are socialized in distinctive cultures & share understandings about factors in their state policy environments that affect the perceptions of the key actors in each state" (p. 386)
3. "Policy makers' subjective understandings of the environment in which they operate" (p. 386 as quoted by Young, 1977)
3.1. incorporates several intermingled elements of belief, perception, evaluation, and intention as responses to the reality out there
4. "crucial, unexplored variable in policymaking"
5. "among policy actors there is a shared sense of what is appropriate in action, interaction, and choice" (p. 486)
6. explains how values are translated through policymaking
6.1. actors in states share common language about processes, constraints, and rituals that must be observed in policymaking
6.2. In a competitive environment for control, "there has to be a system that defines renegade behavior" (p. 374)
6.3. assumptive world provides predictability in the policy world
6.4. "this system of rules, roles, proper behavior, and boundaries is important for power maintenance" (p. 374)
7. "Assumptive worlds function to limit the range of options and focus debate within certain understood priorities" (p. 375)
8. cohesion-building function
8.1. allows for shorthand of communication among insiders in policy making
8.2. dissonant ideas are not articulated (p. 375)
8.3. policies that promote unfashionable values are not formulated (p. 375)
8.4. facilitates policymaking
8.5. limits ideas that don't fit w/ local language & stories
9. Assumptive worlds as translators of values
10. Assumptive Worlds as Barometers of Change
