Local policy subsystems and issue definition: An analysis of community development policy change

Using a policy subsystem approach, the authors examine the politics of community development in Minneapolis. A cohesive and stable community development subsystem evolved during the 1970s and early 1980s, dominated by community development corporations and the city's multifamily housing development bureaucracy. Recent changes in community development policy reflect changes in the subsystem dynamics, including a challenge to the dominant coalition by neighborhood groups and external factors such as the redefinition of policy objectives. Subsystem analysis helps to explain policy change at the local level; explicit consideration of the social construction of issues and of the impact of issue redefinition will enrich subsystem analysis.