The central question in this study is whether the power of the media agenda over the political agenda has recently increased. The agenda-building dynamics are established using cross-country time-series data on four issues, covering fifteen and eight years respectively of British and Dutch parliamentary debates and newspaper articles. Structural equation models show that the parliamentary agenda is more influenced by the media agenda than the other way around, and that the power balance has shifted even more in favour of the media. It is additionally found that media power is especially associated with issues within the European domain. This study contributes empirically to the 'mediatization' debate in a EU context, which is largely limited to the realm of theoretical speculation.
In 2007, the Dutch state secretary for European affairs lamented the narrow focus on the rules of European integration in the public debate, overshadowing the EU’s impact on citizens’ daily lives. This study compares the amount and type of news about the EU in the British, French and Dutch press during the period 1990—2003. A content analysis of Dutch EU coverage for the years 2004 up to 2006 was subsequently undertaken, which saw key events such as the EU enlargement and referenda on the constitution. The results show how Dutch EU news is notable for its domestic viewpoint until 2003. The prominence of EU news in all three countries seems unrelated to the EU’s growing authority. Besides key events regarding the integration process, the EU appears to rely on crises and rows to draw media attention. Everyday politics remain invisible.
How effective are policy interventions to fight crime and how valid is the policy theory that underlies them? This is the twofold research question addressed in this article, which presents an evidencebased evaluation of Dutch social safety policy. By bridging the gap between actual effects and assumed effects, this study seeks to make fuller use of the practical relevance of evidence-based evaluations. The results reveal promising interventions and mechanisms for policy practice. In addition, the chosen approach advances current practice using evidence-based outcomes to distinguish plausible from implausible policy assumptions. An urgent need is signaled for governments to provide substantive reasoning for their policy choices. Many of the assumptions that correspond with evidence from impact evaluations relate to general prevention, often found within the strategy of situational prevention. Contrary to any general preventive or short-term effects, the assumptions regarding long-term specific prevention through law enforcement cannot be taken as read.
Making a difference in the neighbourhood: Increased inequalities in civic participation between neighbourhoods and residents?Do inequalities in civic participation increase in a policy context in which more is asked of the responsibility and self-efficacy
of citizens to shape and maintain their local environment? It is argued in this article that residents do not have equal opportunities to contribute to neighbourhood development, which is a cause for concern as soon as interests and preferences differ between them. Based on a nationally representative
Dutch survey (WoON 2015) differences in participation between neighbourhoods and residents were analysed, along with possible explanations. Based on survey data of 40 officially appointed deprived urban neighbourhoods it is explored whether these differences increased between 2012 and 2015,
when national funding for these areas dried up. The results indicate that although socio-economic differences in participation are considerable, they have not increased.
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