The hydraulic model of policy : multiple venues in data security and privacy policymaking

This dissertation examines variation in data security and privacy policy-making across multiple levels of government institutions in the United States. I extend the work of scholars studying Punctuated Equilibrium by offering a framework for conceptualizing how the decision-making goals of political elites are associated with particular policy outcomes, leading to smaller or larger punctuations. Here I examine one policy area, data security privacy, representing an issue that is salient, complex, and nonpartisan yet still suffers from lack of direction by Congress. I demonstrate that policy-making in data security and privacy in the United States has continued in alternate venues despite the lack of any major legislation in this issue area for the last 20 years. Physical science offers a useful metaphor to describe the mechanics behind my theoretical contribution, hydraulics. To elucidate this metaphor, I present three case studies on data security and privacy policy-making. Using data from the Federal Trade Commission and state legislatures, this research sheds light on gaps and weaknesses in policy-making at the federal level that are sometimes buttressed by quasi-judicial and state actors.