GARBAGE CAN POLITICS AND FACULTY POLITICS.

GARBAGE CAN POLITICS AND FACULTY POLITICS. Years ago, I came across an article on what the authors called garbage can politics. I can’t find the article now, but Google lists a number of articles on “garbage cans”, which is evidently a term of art in political science. “Garbage cans” are organizations with a lot of opinionated voters and no political parties or other structure. Examples of a garbage can would be a college faculty or a typical committee. The article I have mentioned provided how-to guidance for a faculty dean dealing with a faculty committee. It said, imagine you are the dean of faculty. You have fifty or so egomaniacs who love to talk. You need a “garbage can issue.” Parking is always a good garbage can issue. Introduce it first, let everybody talk for two or three hours and then when almost everybody is tired and happy and goes home, you introduce topics like the budget and have your people primed to vote on them.