conflict can suggest research hypotheses at least as appealing as those we might offer. Our interest at this point is simply to develop a framework that permits such relationships to be conceived and analyzed.

We have presented a general framework that describes how conflict is managed in the public policy process. The approach we have employed recognizes the environment in which political decisions are made, identifies a variety of important factors that condition the type of decision mode used, and suggests some of the relationships that may exist between the decision mode and decision method that is ultimately selected. Above all, the model takes into account the critical influence of the policy process and the way in which conflict is treated at each of its various stages.

We believe that this framework can be usefully employed as a heuristic tool by conflict management researchers and practitioners both to understand better and to predict decision modes and methods that are likely to be used by public policy decision makers to address conflict.

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