Measuring the European Council agenda: Introducing a new approach and dataset

Alexandrova, Petya; Carammia, Marcello; Princen, Sebastian; Timmermans, Arco

doi:10.1177/1465116513509124

Cited by 43 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(20 reference statements)

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“…The paper provides a systematic description and exploration of characteristics Project (Alexandrova et al 2013). The EU codebook is a slight adaptation of the US codebook.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Producing Salience or Keeping Silence? An Exploration of Topics and Non-Topics of Special Eurobarometers

2015

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Public opinion does not fall out of the sky. What passes for public opinion in the European Union is largely the answers of its citizens to questions posed in surveys commissioned and controlled by the European Commission. This paper presents the first systematic mapping of the topics and non-topics of the 400 so-called Special Eurobarometers: reports based on batteries of questions about specific policy issues posed in face-to-face interviews to about 25,000 citizens, constituting nationally representative samples of all member states. This exploration is especially relevant against the background of the increased politicisation of the EU; both given the potential value of public opinion as a "substitute" for a more direct link to the electorate and as a power resource in decision-making. We chart the frequency of Special EBs over time, identify the topics (and non-topics) using the Comparative Agenda Project's EU codebook, and relate their frequency to the distribution of competencies between the EU and its member states. We also document the variation across DGs in their effort to gauge public opinion. We conclude that the Commission is increasingly seeking public opinion and that it does so in a very broad range of policy areas. We find a curvilinear relationship between the degree of EU competencies and the frequency of Special EBs. Citizen input is less sought in areas where the EU already has far reaching competencies and in areas which are clearly in the national (or even sub-national) domain. The lion's share of Special EBs is conducted in the realm of shared competencies, with an emphasis on those areas where the EU got involved relatively recently. We also detected only two Special EBs specifically related to the redistribution of resources (e.g., cohesion policy) and none on immigration. We also find a large variation across the DGs on whose behalf Special EBs are conducted. Three DGs are responsible for half of all EBs and nine DGs for less than five percent. These results open up promising avenues for research on the responsiveness of the European Commission and its agenda setting strategies and legitimacy seeking behaviour.

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“…The paper provides a systematic description and exploration of characteristics Project (Alexandrova et al 2013). The EU codebook is a slight adaptation of the US codebook.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Producing Salience or Keeping Silence? An Exploration of Topics and Non-Topics of Special Eurobarometers

2015

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“…Few recent studies reveal that the catalogue of themes discussed by this top EU body is extremely diverse, covering both issues within and outside EU jurisdictions (Wessels, 2008a, b;Nugent, 2010;Alexandrova et al, 2014). And yet, some issues appear to be overrepresented.…”

Section: European Council Agenda Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining political attention allocation with the help of issue character: evidence from the European Council

Alexandrova

2015

Eur. Pol. Sci. Rev.

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Policy issues compete for the attention of political actors, and the size of the agenda an issue can occupy is largely determined by the way in which it is defined. This logic constitutes a simple agenda-setting model in which factors related to the participants in the policy process and their context influence the attention a single issue receives after being problematised. In order to be able to apply this model to the construction of a whole agenda, we need to add an intermediate step. This study proposes to do so by incorporating the notion of issue character and offers an empirical application of the adapted model to the European Council, a crucial informal player in European Union (EU) agenda setting. Using a dimensionality reduction technique, the composition of the agenda is broken down to two constitutive dimensions -core vs. non-core themes of government and economic vs. noneconomic character. Since the first structuring element is in line with existing knowledge and the role expectations for the European Council, the analysis concentrates on the second type. Changing saliency levels of the economic issue character of the agenda are used as a dependent variable in a model, including predictors related to the nature of the institution and contextual factors. The results show that leftist European Council party ideology and growing government deficit in the EU contribute to the increasing prominence of the economic dimension, which in turn explains rising levels in attention to various issues, especially of the non-core themes type.

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“…10 Developed within the EU Policy Agendas Project (Alexandrova et al 2014), it covers the period 1975-2012 and includes the full text of all Conclusions coded for policy content. 11 The dataset was extended for the purposes of this article to signify the sections dedicated to or based on the occurrence of focusing events.…”

Section: Data and Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upsetting the agenda: the clout of external focusing events in the European Council

Alexandrova

2015

J. Pub. Pol.

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: Focusing events are sudden, striking large-scale occurrences that attract political attention. However, not all potential focusing events appear on the agenda. Combining data from multiple sources, this study conducts an analysis of the determinants of prioritisation of external focusing events in the European Council over a period longer than two decades. The results demonstrate that decisions regarding the placement of crises on the agenda are underscored by exogenous (humanitarian) and endogenous (geopolitical interest) considerations. Those events with a higher likelihood of agenda access include manmade incidents (versus natural disasters), events with larger death tolls and crises in the neighbourhood. Stronger competition between potential focusing events across time and space reduces the chances of access. The level of attention each event receives depends on purely strategic interests. Focusing events in neighbouring countries gain a higher portion of attention, as do occurrences in states having a larger trade exchange with the European Union.

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Measuring the European Council agenda: Introducing a new approach and dataset

Cited by 43 publications

References 26 publications

Producing Salience or Keeping Silence? An Exploration of Topics and Non-Topics of Special Eurobarometers

Producing Salience or Keeping Silence? An Exploration of Topics and Non-Topics of Special Eurobarometers

Explaining political attention allocation with the help of issue character: evidence from the European Council

Upsetting the agenda: the clout of external focusing events in the European Council

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