Hugh Heclo

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Hugh Heclo is a Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University. He was previously a professor of government at Harvard University.He also operates a Christmas tree farm outside Winchester, Virginia - Ashcroft Farms.

Heclo is perhaps best known as an expert on the development of modern welfare states. In 1978, he invented the concept of an issue network, used to describe loose alliances between interest groups, organizations and economic actors that attempt to influence policy development.

Issue Crawler, a server-side software that locates public debate on the Web, is based on the issue network concept.

In 2002, Heclo was awarded the American Political Science Association's John Gaus Award.