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Keeping party programmes on track: the transmission of the policy agendas of executive speeches to legislative outputs in the United Kingdom

Keeping party programmes on track: the transmission of the policy agendas of executive speeches to legislative outputs in the United Kingdom
Keeping party programmes on track: the transmission of the policy agendas of executive speeches to legislative outputs in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the transmission between policy promises and statutes is assumed to be both rapid and efficient because of the tradition of party discipline, relative stability of government, absence of coalitions, and the limited powers of legislative revision in the second chamber. Even in the United Kingdom, the transmission is not perfect since legislative priorities and outputs are susceptible to changes in public opinion or media coverage, unanticipated events in the external world, backbench rebellions, changes in the political parties, and the practical constraints of administering policies or programmes. This paper investigates the strength of the connection between executive priorities and legislative outputs measured by the Speech from the Throne and Acts of Parliament from 1911 to 2008. These are categorized according to the policy content coding system of the UK Policy Agendas Project (www.policyagendas.org.uk). Time series cross-sectional analyses show that there is transmission of the policy agenda from the speech to acts. However, the relationship differs by party, strengthening over time for Conservative governments and declining over time for Labour and other governments.
agenda-setting, institutions, party programmes, united kingdom
1755-7739
Bevan, Shaun
3142fa60-e99e-4f65-8ece-37cea21799cf
John, Peter
fd080737-2b23-44ff-bc56-c7f9c2293de4
Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
Bevan, Shaun
3142fa60-e99e-4f65-8ece-37cea21799cf
John, Peter
fd080737-2b23-44ff-bc56-c7f9c2293de4
Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7

Bevan, Shaun, John, Peter and Jennings, Will (2011) Keeping party programmes on track: the transmission of the policy agendas of executive speeches to legislative outputs in the United Kingdom. European Political Science Review, 3 (3). (doi:10.1017/S1755773910000433).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In the United Kingdom, the transmission between policy promises and statutes is assumed to be both rapid and efficient because of the tradition of party discipline, relative stability of government, absence of coalitions, and the limited powers of legislative revision in the second chamber. Even in the United Kingdom, the transmission is not perfect since legislative priorities and outputs are susceptible to changes in public opinion or media coverage, unanticipated events in the external world, backbench rebellions, changes in the political parties, and the practical constraints of administering policies or programmes. This paper investigates the strength of the connection between executive priorities and legislative outputs measured by the Speech from the Throne and Acts of Parliament from 1911 to 2008. These are categorized according to the policy content coding system of the UK Policy Agendas Project (www.policyagendas.org.uk). Time series cross-sectional analyses show that there is transmission of the policy agenda from the speech to acts. However, the relationship differs by party, strengthening over time for Conservative governments and declining over time for Labour and other governments.

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More information

Published date: 14 September 2011
Keywords: agenda-setting, institutions, party programmes, united kingdom
Organisations: Politics & International Relations

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 336584
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/336584
ISSN: 1755-7739
PURE UUID: eada70c7-0030-49d0-997c-da4e9d4d4f01
ORCID for Will Jennings: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9007-8896

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 30 Mar 2012 09:18
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:42

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Contributors

Author: Shaun Bevan
Author: Peter John
Author: Will Jennings ORCID iD

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