TITLE:
The Applicability of Agenda Setting Policy Implementation Theory on COVID-19 Lockdown Policy in Southern African Countries
AUTHORS:
Tariro Portia Tendengu
KEYWORDS:
Agenda Setting Theory, Policy Implementation, Policy Dialogue, COVID-19, Lockdown Policy
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Political Science,
Vol.11 No.3,
July
26,
2021
ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 outbreak has been declared a
pandemic by international and governmental
organisations in developed and developing countries. In Southern African
countries, policy makers, Veto players and public policy
advisors engaged in a policy dialogue so as to curb the COVID-19 pandemic by
turning the outbreak of COVID-19 into an actionable government priority. CO- VID-19 pandemic in
African countries presents a severe threat to human welfare of people living in rural and urban
areas. Policy making involves a series of stages which have to be taken before
a policy can be adopted to address an issue. The first stage involves
identification of a problem and ensuring that it gets the attention of policy
makers and is often referred to as agenda setting. Parsons
(1995) termed this level “meso-analysis” where issues and
problems are identified and agendas are set. Scholars have often argued that,
agenda setting is an important tool in policy making as a decision making
catalyst. This is based on the assumption that any government policy and action
initiative needs someone to first bring it to their attention. In response to
the CO- VID-19 pandemic, agenda
setting thus became a starting point for the identification of issues and
possible policy instruments. The first stage involves identification of a
problem and ensuring that it gets the attention of policy makers and is often
referred to as agenda setting. Agenda setting with reference to the COVID-19
pandemic lockdown has been argued to be politically convoluted, it remains a process that involves a number
of actors and institutions. The paper seeks
to unravel the applicability of the Agenda setting theory as propounded
by John Kindon on the implementation of the lockdown policy in Southern African
countries.