Agenda responsiveness in the European Council: public priorities, policy problems and political attention

Alexandrova, Petya; Rasmussen, Anne; Toshkov, Dimiter

doi:10.1080/01402382.2015.1104995

Cited by 53 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The blurring of responsibilities may thus act as a strain on responsiveness not only in EU policy making itself (Alexandrova et al. ) but also in the spheres of national policy making analysed here. As a result, it can be expected that the opinion‐policy linkage is weaker in countries which have a federal, as opposed to a unitary, system and in countries that are members of the EU.…”

Section: The Opinion‐policy Nexusmentioning

confidence: 99%

The opinion‐policy nexus in Europe and the role of political institutions

Rasmussen

Reher

Toshkov

2018

European J Political Res

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Abstract.A strong link between citizen preferences and public policy is one of the key goals and criteria of democratic governance. Yet, our knowledge about the extent to which public policies on specific issues are in line with citizen preferences in Europe is limited. This article reports on the first study of the link between public opinion and public policy that covers a large and diverse sample of concrete public policy issues in 31 European democracies. The findings demonstrate a strong positive relationship and a substantial degree of congruence between public opinion and the state of public policy. Also examined is whether political institutions, including electoral systems and the horizontal and vertical division of powers, influence the opinion-policy link. The evidence for such effects is very limited, which suggests that the same institutions might affect policy representation in countervailing ways through different mechanisms.

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Section: The Opinion‐policy Nexusmentioning

confidence: 99%

The opinion‐policy nexus in Europe and the role of political institutions

Rasmussen

Reher

Toshkov

2018

European J Political Res

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“…Different studies have analyzed the extent to which the EU Commission responds to public opinion (Rauh 2016; van der Veer and Haverland 2018) and member states' propensity to signal responsiveness to their publics (Hagemann et al 2017;Schneider 2019aSchneider , 2019b. In a similar vein, some research has argued that responsiveness could occur at different stages of the policy-making process such as agenda-setting (Alexandrova et al 2016) and in the timing of transposition of EU directives (Williams 2018). These studies, however, generally focus on single EU actors and often fail to account for the mechanisms underlying processes of responsiveness.…”

Section: 'Systemic Responsiveness' In the Eumentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding responsiveness in European Union politics: introducing the debate

Zhelyazkova

Bølstad

Meijers

2019

Journal of European Public Policy

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The extent to which a government's policies mirror the preferences of its citizens is often deemed a key feature of a representative democracy. While research on this topic has traditionally been done at the national level, scholars have also increasingly been examining the European Union (EU). This debate section takes stock of the research done in this area and includes contributions by authors who have different, but complementary suggestions for how to move forward. Whereas all contributions seek to elucidate the mechanisms behind responsiveness in the EU, they adopt different perspectives that focus on institutional actors, processes of absorbing and communicating policyrelevant information and implementation outcomes.

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“…Most of the studies of policy responsiveness (for reviews, see Shapiro 2011; Wlezien 2016) examine either static congruence between public opinion and concrete policies (e.g., Lax & Phillips 2012) or dynamic responsiveness between public opinion and indirect proxies for policy, such as spending (Mortensen 2010;Soroka & Wlezien 2010), attention (Mortensen 2010;Bevan & Jennings 2014;Alexandrova et al 2016) or V C 2018 Nordic Political Science Association Scandinavian Political Studies, Vol. 41 -No.…”

Section: Public Opinion and Interest Groups As Drivers Of Public Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of the studies of policy responsiveness (for reviews, see Shapiro ; Wlezien ) examine either static congruence between public opinion and concrete policies (e.g., Lax & Phillips ) or dynamic responsiveness between public opinion and indirect proxies for policy, such as spending (Mortensen ; Soroka & Wlezien ), attention (Mortensen ; Bevan & Jennings ; Alexandrova et al ) or latent constructs, such as the ‘policy mood’ (Stimson et al ). Attention to policy issues during the agenda‐setting stage and policy change are typically studied in isolation, while both of these aspects are important for understanding public policy making.…”

Section: Public Opinion and Interest Groups As Drivers Of Public Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of Regulatory Policymaking in Sweden: The Role of Media Advocacy and Public Opinion

2018

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While extensive literatures study the responsiveness of policy to public opinion and the influence of interest groups, few studies look at both factors simultaneously. This article offers an analysis of the influence of media advocacy and public opinion on political attention and policy change for four regulatory issues over a relatively long period of time in Sweden. The data pools together measures of public support for specific policies with new data on attention to the policy issues in the Swedish parliament, policy developments over time and detailed coding of the claims of interest advocates in two major Swedish newspapers. Analyzing this data, a complex picture without a general tendency for either public opinion or media advocacy to act as dominant forces in producing policy change is revealed, although some evidence is found that the public is successful in stimulating political attention when it supports policy proposals aimed at changing the status quo.

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Agenda responsiveness in the European Council: public priorities, policy problems and political attention

Cited by 53 publications

References 40 publications

The opinion‐policy nexus in Europe and the role of political institutions

The opinion‐policy nexus in Europe and the role of political institutions

Understanding responsiveness in European Union politics: introducing the debate

Dynamics of Regulatory Policymaking in Sweden: The Role of Media Advocacy and Public Opinion

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