American public policy is the result of complex interactions among a number of complex institutions. It also involves a wide range of ideas and values about what the goals of policy should be and what the best means of reaching them. In addition to the interactions that occur within the public sector, there are the interactions with an equally complex society and economy. Indeed, society is playing an increasingly important role in policymaking and implementation, with reforms in the public sector placing an increasing emphasis on the capacity of the private sector to implement, if not make, public policy.

        Making policy requires reaching some form of social and political consensus among all these forces. There does not have to be full agreement on all the values and all the points of policy, but enough common ground must be found to pass and implement legislation. Building those coalitions can extend beyond reaching ideological agreement to include bargaining and horse trading, which assign a central role to individual policy entrepreneurs and brokers. There is so much potential for blockage and delay in the American political system that some driving force may be needed to make it function.