Bricolage or Entrepreneurship ?
The concept of policy entrepreneurship is thus stretched : policy entrepreneurs do not necessarily have a pet policy solution , they can pick-it up as a change in the politics or problem stream appears . I argue that the concept of policy entrepreneurs proves too limited when agents do not shape preferences for a solution but rather look for the best fit . Here then enters bricolage . The bricoleur has a process goal and as such cannot be likened to a form of policy entrepreneur that is inherently driven by an outcome goal . Rather than selecting ideas depending on preferences , the bricoleur creates by recombining ideas and formulating a bespoke solution . It is thus a type of agency that uses unexploited aspects of the full theoretical leverage of the consequential search for fit .
Inside the MSA the bricoleur is an agent who has an incidence on both content and content perception and who is active in two of the streams . In the problem stream , the bricoleur opens a window by framing conditions as a problem that she can and must be fix ; the bricoleur thus sets her goal to engage on a path of consequential search for fit in the policy stream . Only then does the bricoleur modify the content to produce a “ fit ” solution . This bricolage leads to an oblique way of coupling the streams : rather than a solution being joined to a new problem , a bespoke solution is created to accommodate the definition of the problem .
Nevertheless , the search for “ fit ” does not only depend of the way the problem was framed but also of the ripeness of the politics stream and of the elements that the bricoleur finds in the policy stream . Hereby I address how the bricoleur creates a bespoke solution . Formulating Policy in an Oblique Way
Once the bricoleur has framed conditions as a problem , the search for fit depends on two variables : first , the ripeness of the politics stream and , second , increasing returns of policy ideas . These criteria determine how the bricoleur creates a bespoke solution . As for formulating policy , bricolage is an oblique way to create a new solution by selecting and recombining ideas depending on their properties , but also depending on how they are perceived by decision makers .
Ripeness of Policy-Makers
Building upon Kingdon ’ s idea of receptivity ([ 1984 ] 2003 ), Herweg , Huß , and Zohlnhöfer ( 2015 ) contributed to the enrichment of the MSA by bringing the concept of “ ripeness ” of the stream which describes how the stream becomes ripe to new policy ideas . The bricoleur then pays attention to select elements of ideas which the policymakers are ripe to . With bricolage , it is even possible to piece together a solution that will comfort dissonant preferences among policymakers . This is a type of contingency defined by Rüb ( 2016 ) as action contingency in the sense that it arises from the interaction of individuals of groups competing for power .
Increasing Returns of Policy Ideas
Zahariadis in his definition of consequential search for fit posits that an “ immediate action [ such as bricolage ] is motivated more by the need to avoid
50