When does Government listen to the public? : Voluntary associations & dynamic agenda representation in the United States

Shaun Bevan; Anne Rasmussen

doi:10.1111/psj.12231

When does Government listen to the public? : Voluntary associations & dynamic agenda representation in the United States

Shaun Bevan, Anne Rasmussen

School of Social and Political Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract / Description of output

The aim of the paper is to examine how the population size of voluntary associations affects the process through which the public’s issue priorities are translated into policy priorities. We conduct a time-series analysis of political attention in executive and legislative agendas at the US federal level in the period 1971-2001 covering all issues addressed by the US government. We show that the number of voluntary associations in a policy area has a positive conditioning effect on the link between public priorities and attention for the President's State of the Union Address. However, our results do not find a positive effect for voluntary associations at later stages of the policy cycle which experience a higher degree of institutional friction. The findings underline the importance of distinguishing between different stages of policy-making when considering the impact of voluntary associations on dynamic agenda responsiveness.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	111-132
Journal	Policy Studies Journal
Volume	48
Issue number	1
Early online date	27 Nov 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12231
Publication status	Published - 17 Feb 2020

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

policy agendas
voluntary associations
responsiveness

Access to Document

10.1111/psj.12231

Bevan_etalPSJ_2017WhenDoesGoverbnmentListenPublic
2017 The Authors. Policy Studies Journal published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Policy Studies Organization. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.[The copyright line for this article was changed on 5 April 2018 after original online publication]
Final published version, 502 KB

1 Active

CAP: Comparative Agendas Project
Bevan, S., Baumgartner, F. R., Jones, B., Walgrave , S. & Green-Pedersen, C.
1/01/93 → …
Project: Research Collaboration with external organisation

3 Article
2 Chapter

Gone Fishing: The Creation of the Comparative Agendas Project Master Codebook
Bevan, S., 22 Mar 2019, Comparative Policy Agendas: Theory, Tools, Data. Baumgartner, F., Breunig, C. & Grossman, E. (eds.). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, p. 17-34
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Open Access
File
The Public Agenda: A Comparative Perspective
Bevan, S. & Jennings, W., 22 Mar 2019, Comparative Policy Agendas: Theory, Tools, Data. Baumgartner, F., Breunig, C. & Grossman, E. (eds.). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, p. 219-242
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Representation, agendas and institutions
Bevan, S. & Jennings, W., 1 Feb 2014, In: European Journal of Political Research. 53, 1, p. 37-56
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Open Access
File

Shaun Bevan
- School of Social and Political Science - Personal Chair of Comparative Public Policy
Person: Academic: Research Active

Cite this

@article{210b07cfe9204d0ebc57d6f8513f5977,

title = "When does Government listen to the public? : Voluntary associations & dynamic agenda representation in the United States",

abstract = "The aim of the paper is to examine how the population size of voluntary associations affects the process through which the public{\textquoteright}s issue priorities are translated into policy priorities. We conduct a time-series analysis of political attention in executive and legislative agendas at the US federal level in the period 1971-2001 covering all issues addressed by the US government. We show that the number of voluntary associations in a policy area has a positive conditioning effect on the link between public priorities and attention for the President's State of the Union Address. However, our results do not find a positive effect for voluntary associations at later stages of the policy cycle which experience a higher degree of institutional friction. The findings underline the importance of distinguishing between different stages of policy-making when considering the impact of voluntary associations on dynamic agenda responsiveness.",

keywords = "policy agendas, voluntary associations, responsiveness",

author = "Shaun Bevan and Anne Rasmussen",

year = "2020",

month = feb,

day = "17",

doi = "10.1111/psj.12231",

language = "English",

volume = "48",

pages = "111--132",

journal = "Policy Studies Journal",

issn = "0190-292X",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - When does Government listen to the public?

T2 - Voluntary associations & dynamic agenda representation in the United States

AU - Bevan, Shaun

AU - Rasmussen, Anne

PY - 2020/2/17

Y1 - 2020/2/17

N2 - The aim of the paper is to examine how the population size of voluntary associations affects the process through which the public’s issue priorities are translated into policy priorities. We conduct a time-series analysis of political attention in executive and legislative agendas at the US federal level in the period 1971-2001 covering all issues addressed by the US government. We show that the number of voluntary associations in a policy area has a positive conditioning effect on the link between public priorities and attention for the President's State of the Union Address. However, our results do not find a positive effect for voluntary associations at later stages of the policy cycle which experience a higher degree of institutional friction. The findings underline the importance of distinguishing between different stages of policy-making when considering the impact of voluntary associations on dynamic agenda responsiveness.

AB - The aim of the paper is to examine how the population size of voluntary associations affects the process through which the public’s issue priorities are translated into policy priorities. We conduct a time-series analysis of political attention in executive and legislative agendas at the US federal level in the period 1971-2001 covering all issues addressed by the US government. We show that the number of voluntary associations in a policy area has a positive conditioning effect on the link between public priorities and attention for the President's State of the Union Address. However, our results do not find a positive effect for voluntary associations at later stages of the policy cycle which experience a higher degree of institutional friction. The findings underline the importance of distinguishing between different stages of policy-making when considering the impact of voluntary associations on dynamic agenda responsiveness.

KW - policy agendas

KW - voluntary associations

KW - responsiveness

U2 - 10.1111/psj.12231

DO - 10.1111/psj.12231

M3 - Article

SN - 0190-292X

VL - 48

SP - 111

EP - 132

JO - Policy Studies Journal

JF - Policy Studies Journal

IS - 1

ER -

When does Government listen to the public? : Voluntary associations & dynamic agenda representation in the United States

Abstract / Description of output

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Projects

CAP: Comparative Agendas Project

Research output

Gone Fishing: The Creation of the Comparative Agendas Project Master Codebook

The Public Agenda: A Comparative Perspective

Representation, agendas and institutions

Profiles

Shaun Bevan

Cite this