Representative agenda

Jean Monnet Module on Agenda-Setting in the European Union – ASEU
Representative Agenda-Setting: How Public Opinion and Policy Promises Drive Agendas
Dr. Shaun Bevan (University of Edinburgh)
[email protected]
Description:
Policy-making first takes form in the early stages of the political process and is often first made public
through executive speeches, yet how public opinion affects each part of the policy-making process is only
starting to be understood. While the content of these speeches and other agendas early on in the policymaking process appear to be heavily influenced by public priorities, later stages of the policy-making
process, such as budgeting, are more often tied to public preferences. This lecture will focus on the
differing effects of public priorities and public preferences on political agendas. It will further discuss the
interrelationships between political agendas to open a discussion of how the public’s voice makes its way
into policy.
Readings
Core Readings:
Bevan, Shaun and Will Jennings. 2014. “Representation, Agendas and Institutions.” European
Journal of Political Research, 53(1): 37-56.Lovett et al
Jennings, Will and Christopher Wlezien “Preferences, Problems and Representation” Political Science
Research Methods, forthcoming. 2015.
Lovett, John, Shaun Bevan and Frank Baumgartner. “Popular Presidents Can Affect
Congressional Attention, for a Little While.” Policy Studies Journal, forthcoming. 2015.
Wlezien, Christopher. 1995. “The Public as Thermostat: Dynamics of Preferences.” American Journal of
Political Science, 39(4): 981-1000.
Further Readings
Bevan, Shaun, Peter John and Will Jennings. 2011. “Keeping Party Programmes on Track: The
Transmission of the Policy Agendas of Executive Speeches to Legislative Outputs in the
United Kingdom.” European Political Science Review, 3(3): 395-417.
Jones, Bryan D., Heather Larsen-Price, and John Wilkerson. 2009. “Representation and American Governing
Institutions.” Journal of Politics 71: 277-290.

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