CULTURAL CHANGE AND POLICY IMAGES IN POLICY SUBSYSTEMS
研究文化变迁如何影响政策形象的接受度，以原子能委员会为例，发现其形象在平等主义者增多时产生负面联想，有助于预测哪些政策形象和机构可能因文化变化而面临风险。
Baumgartner and Jones' theory of conflict expansion highlights the importance of policy imagery in the maintenance of policy subsystems, as a sharp increase in negative imagery can drive conflict expansion and subsystem dissolution. However, we still know relatively little about what drives rapid shifts in image valence. In this study, I examine how cultural change affects receptiveness to policy images, drawing on the cultural theory ( CT ) developed by Douglas and Wildavsky. Affecting both perception and risk assessment, cultural commitments impact how policy images are received. Returning to the policy subsystem anchored in the Atomic Energy Commission, I find that its imagery – well suited for an earlier cultural milieu – created negative associations for egalitarians, who were increasingly prevalent during this time frame. As my study shows, CT can add to the study of administration by helping us better understand, categorize, and predict which images and institutions may be endangered by specific cultural changes.