Agenda Setting, Innovation, and State Gay Rights Policy: An Event History Analysis

Authors

  • Roddrick A. Colvin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2004.25.0.241-263

Abstract

By using gay rights policy as a framework, this research attempts to link the process of agenda-setting with the diffusion of innovation across the United States both theoretically and empirically. Based on independent variables that reflect both agenda-setting and diffusion, it is hypothesized that stronger predictive models will result from linking agenda-setting to innovation. While many scholars have found state-specific variables to be the strongest predictors of gay rights policy adoption, by joining agenda-setting and innovation, this research also suggests that other variables play an important role in the adoption of such policies. These variables are: previous adoption by a state’s capital city, the party of the governor, corporate policy adoptions in the state, the diversity of the state’s population, and the size of the gay and lesbian population.

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Published

2004-11-01

Issue

Vol. 25: Fall 2004

Section

Articles

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