In the hallways and meeting rooms of any state capitol building, one will hear such terms as "its time has come", "2nd reading calendar", "legislative history". These and other terms remind us that the concept of time has an important and rather unique place in the perceptions of policymakers. In Time, Politics, and Policies, Burt Loomis explores how the concept of time affects the way public policy is made.

The heart of the book is Chapter 2, in which Loomis outlines his ideas about the "nature of time". He argues that three separate time dimensions are important to policymakers: trends, cycles, and deadlines. Trends represent a longer and more linear sense of time, and often set the context in which policy agendas are created. For example, steady population increases over a decade or so represent a trend with substantial implications for the state's infrastructure needs.

Cycles, such as the state budget cycle, tend to ritualize or routinize certain behaviors. However, different cycles have different wavelengths: the budget cycle in most states is 12- 18 months, while the electoral cycles may be 48 months for the governor and 24 months for the legislature. The interaction between these cycles affects the policymaking process.

Deadlines are constraints which often force decision-making. This is particularly true within state legislatures, where deadlines for bill introductions, committee reports, and session length are common.

In a unique and imaginative approach, Loomis guides us through a year in the policy-making life of the Kansas state legislature. The year is not the traditional calendar year (January 1 to December 31), but rather runs from the end of one legislative session (May 1988) to the end of the next session (April 1989) -- a time frame which highlights the author's thesis that policymakers don't deal in "normal time". In the process, he focuses on ten important issues, and demonstrates the effect of trends, cycles, and deadlines on agenda-setting, policy formulation and policy adoption. Each of the issues is a separate "story", with its own time dimensions and players. Some of these stories-the fight over highway expenditures, for example-are fascinating case studies.

Loomis makes reference to much of the policy process literature, and explicitly borrows heavily from John Kingdon's idea of "convergence" of policy streams (which suggests the importance of "timing"), he adds the effect of electoral cycles on the decisionmaking process.

Almost all the narrative action takes place within the legislative chambers. But ultimately this book is not about the state legislature as an institution, in the manner of Tom Loftus' The Art of Legislative Politics (1994) or Alan Rosenthal's Legislative Life (1981, new edition in progress). Instead, this book is about policymaking in general, and about how time serves as the springs that feed, the levies that channel, and the dams that impede that flow. It is an original and revealing discussion, and well worth the time.

Gary F. Moncrief
Boise State University