Comparative Agendas

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The UK Policy Agendas Project seeks to develop systematic measures of the policy agenda of British government and politics over time. It applies the policy content coding system of the original Policy Agendas Project in the United States, founded by Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones, with the aim of creating a consistent record of the issues that are attended to at different points in time, across many of the main venues of British public policy and politics – namely in parliament, the media and public opinion. The reliability of these measures of policy attention are ensured through adherence to clearly defined coding rules and standards, which give us confidence that changes in the priorities of government can be tracked consistently over time and in different arenas of politics.

Location: University of Edinburgh; University of Southampton
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Downloadable Data Series: 12
Time Span: 1910-2022
Total Observations: 141,379

UK Policy Agendas Project

Featured Research:

Policy Agendas in British Politics

Our book Policy Agendas in British Politics (Palgrave Macmillan) traces the attention of British government to different policy topics since 1945, showing how issues such as the economy, international affairs, crime and immigration have risen and fallen on the agenda. The book throws new light on the key points of change in British politics, such as Thatcherism and New Labour. Building on existing approaches to agenda-setting (incrementalism, the issue... Read more

Party mandates and the politics of attention

An article just published in Party Politics uses data from the UK Policy Agendas Project to test an attention-based model of party mandates and policy agendas. The analysis uses time series cross-sectional models to show how the policy content of the legislative program of British government responds to governing and opposition party platforms, the executive agenda, issue priorities of the public and mass media. Caterina Froio, Shaun Bevan and Will Jennings. (2016).... Read more

Representation, Agendas and Institutions

In a recent study, published in the European Journal of Political Research, we use data from the US and UK Policy Agendas Projects to examine the transmission of the priorities of the public onto the policy priorities of government. This reveals how institutions structure the responsiveness of policy-makers to public opinion. Shaun Bevan and Will Jennings. (2014) 'Representation, Agendas and Institutions.' European Journal of Political Research 53(1):... Read more

Bureaucratic Responsiveness in UK Statutory Instruments

In research recently published in Public Administration, Shaun Bevan investigates what determines the bureaucratic agenda. The study uses data on the policy content and ministry jurisdictions of UK statutory instruments from 1987 to 2008. It finds strong effects of the policy agenda of both British Government and the EU legislative agenda on statutory instruments. Shaun Bevan. (2015). 'Bureaucratic Responsiveness: The Effects of Government, Public and European... Read more

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