Representation, agendas and institutions
Representation, agendas and institutions
Dynamic agenda representation can be understood through the transmission of the priorities of the public onto the policy priorities of government. The pattern of representation in policy agendas is mediated through institutions due to friction (that is, organizational and cognitive costs imposed on change) in decision-making and variation in the scarcity of policy-makers’ attention. The paper builds on extant studies of the correspondence between public priorities and the policy activities of government, undertaking time series analyses using data for the US and the UK, from 1951 to 2003, relating to executive speeches, laws and budgets in combination with data on public opinion about the ‘most important problem’. The results show that the responsiveness of policy agendas to public priorities is greater when institutions are subject to less friction (i.e. executive speeches subject to few formal rules and involving a limited number of actors) and declines as friction against policy change increases (i.e. laws and budgets subject to a greater number of veto points and political interests/coalitions).
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Bevan, Shaun
3142fa60-e99e-4f65-8ece-37cea21799cf
Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
7 January 2014
Bevan, Shaun
3142fa60-e99e-4f65-8ece-37cea21799cf
Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
Bevan, Shaun and Jennings, Will
(2014)
Representation, agendas and institutions.
European Journal of Political Research, 53 (1), .
(doi:10.1111/1475-6765.12023).
Abstract
Dynamic agenda representation can be understood through the transmission of the priorities of the public onto the policy priorities of government. The pattern of representation in policy agendas is mediated through institutions due to friction (that is, organizational and cognitive costs imposed on change) in decision-making and variation in the scarcity of policy-makers’ attention. The paper builds on extant studies of the correspondence between public priorities and the policy activities of government, undertaking time series analyses using data for the US and the UK, from 1951 to 2003, relating to executive speeches, laws and budgets in combination with data on public opinion about the ‘most important problem’. The results show that the responsiveness of policy agendas to public priorities is greater when institutions are subject to less friction (i.e. executive speeches subject to few formal rules and involving a limited number of actors) and declines as friction against policy change increases (i.e. laws and budgets subject to a greater number of veto points and political interests/coalitions).
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e-pub ahead of print date: 16 April 2013
Published date: 7 January 2014
Organisations:
Politics & International Relations
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 350408
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/350408
ISSN: 0304-4130
PURE UUID: 21353415-91fb-4de4-9bd6-a1bc15091cdc
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Date deposited: 26 Mar 2013 14:17
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:42
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Author:
Shaun Bevan
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