Synopses & Reviews
Before making significant policy decisions, political actors and parties must first craft an agenda designed to place certain issues at the center of political attention. The agenda-setting approach in political science holds that the amount of attention devoted by the various actors within a political system to issues like immigration, health care, and the economy can inform our understanding of its basic patterns and processes. While there has been considerable attention to how political systems process issues in the United States, Christoffer Green-Pedersen and Stefaan Walgrave demonstrate the broader applicability of this approach by extending it to other countries and their political systems.
Agenda Setting and Political Attention brings together essays on eleven countries and two broad themes. Contributors to the first section analyze the extent to which party and electoral changes and shifts in the partisan composition of government have ledand#151;or not ledand#151;to policy changes in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, and France. The second section turns the focus on changing institutional structures in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, and Canada, including the German reunification and the collapse of the Italian party system. Together, the essays make clear the efficacy of the agenda-setting approach for understanding not only how policies evolve, but also how political systems function.
Review
"This book provides the best analysis I have seen of the political repercussions of globalization for voters, for political parties, and for the structure of political competition. The authors explain why different countries experience globalization in different ways, and they underpin their conclusions with an impressive diversity of data. A tour de force that will shape the study of European politics for years to come."
Gary Marks, Burton Craige Professor, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Chair in Multilevel Governance, Free University of Amsterdam
Review
andldquo;Christoffer Green-Pedersen and Stefaan Walgrave have admirably assembled a group of contributors who, individually and collectively, bring the tools of policy agenda analysis to bear on the central political features of each of the countries examined. Along the way, the findings demolish prevailing expectations about national politics in thought-provoking ways. Clear and remarkable for its depth of analysis, this is one of the best collections of essays I have ever read.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;An impressive and broadly comparative collection of studies on political agenda setting. Agenda Setting, Policies, and Political Systems makes clear the importance of issue attentiveness in politics. It also provides a useful compilation of work on the effects both of and on issue attentiveness by legislatures, political parties, and governments in Europe and North America. In so doing, the book makes an important contribution to a growing body of research arguing that the study of agendas can be a particularly powerful means by which to understand and compare politics and policy making.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;The chapters in this volume demonstrate how the study of agenda setting has developed into a theoretically coherent research program. Beginning with the proposition that political attention is scarce and consequential, the chapters pursue this logic by presenting case studies on how issues gain and lose traction, and the interplay between issue agendas and coalition politics, party systems, electoral competition, and legislative outputs throughout Europe and North America. This volume is a must-read for scholars interested in how specific issues rise and fall, and why this process matters.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Green-Pedersen and Walgrave have collected a number of excellent empirical studies of political agenda setting research. . . . Each chapter offers another piece of the theoretical puzzle and can thus enrich readersand#8217; understanding of how exactly political agendas form and how they impact political decision-making. . . . In sum, [Agenda Setting, Policies, and Political Systems] contains a wealth of information on a variety of countries and extended periods of time.and#8221;
Synopsis
Over the past three decades the effects of globalization and denationalization have created a division between 'winners' and 'losers' in Western Europe. This study examines the transformation of party political systems in six countries (Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK) using opinion surveys, as well as newly collected data on election campaigns. The authors argue that, as a result of structural transformations and the strategic repositioning of political parties, Europe has observed the emergence of a tripolar configuration of political power, comprising the left, the moderate right, and the new populist right. They suggest that, through an emphasis on cultural issues such as mass immigration and resistance to European integration, the traditional focus of political debate - the economy - has been downplayed or reinterpreted in terms of this new political cleavage. This new analysis of Western European politics will interest all students of European politics and political sociology.
Synopsis
Examines the new configuration of political power in Western Europe, as the radical right mobilises globalisation's losers.
Synopsis
Over the past three decades globalisation and denationalisation have created a division between 'winners' and 'losers' in Western Europe. This study examines the resulting transformation of the party systems in six countries and demonstrates how globalisation's losers are becoming increasingly motivated and mobilised by parties of the new populist right.
About the Author
Hanspeter Kriesi is Professor for Comparative Politics in the Institute of Political Science at the University of Zurich.Edgar Grande is Professor for Comparative Politics in the Geschwister-Scholl-Institute for Political Science at the University of Munich.Romain Lachat is a visiting scholar at the Department of Politics of New York University.Martin Dolezal is a researcher in the Geschwister-Scholl-Institute for Political Science at the University of Munich.Simon Bornscher is a researcher in the Institute of Political Science at the University of Zurich.Timotheos Frey is a researcher in the Institute of Political Science at the University of Zurich.
Table of Contents
Preface
1 Political Agenda Setting: An Approach to Studying Political Systems
Christoffer Green-Pedersen and Stefaan Walgrave
Part I Parties, Elections, and Policies
2 Party Politics and the Policy Agenda: The Case of the United Kingdom
Peter John, Shaun Bevan, and Will Jennings
3 Lawmaking and Agenda Setting in the United States, 1948and#150;2010 36
Bryan D. Jones and Michelle C. Whyman
4 The Evolution of the French Political Space Revisited: Issue Priorities and Party Competition
Sylvain Brouard, Emiliano Grossman, and Isabelle Guinaudeau
5 Party-System Development in Denmark: Agenda-Setting Dynamics and Political Change
Christoffer Green-Pedersen
6 The Policy Agenda in Multiparty Government: Coalition Agreements and Legislative Activity in the Netherlands
Arco Timmermans and Gerard Breeman
7 Agenda Setting and Direct Democracy: The Rise of the Swiss Peopleand#8217;s Party
Frand#233;dand#233;ric Varone, Isabelle Engeli, Pascal Sciarini, and Roy Gava
Part II Issue Priorities and Institutional Change
8 Content and Dynamics of Legislative Agendas in Germany
Christian Breunig
9 Strong Devolution but No Increasing Issue Divergence: Evolving Issue Priorities of the Belgian Political Parties, 1987and#150;2010
Stefaan Walgrave, Brandon Zicha, Anne Hardy, Jeroen Joly, and Tobias Van Assche
10 The Impact of Party Policy Priorities on Italian Lawmaking from the First to the Second Republic, 1983and#150;2006
Enrico Borghetto, Marcello Carammia, and Francesco Zucchini
11 Policy Promises and Governmental Activities in Spain
Laura Chaquand#233;s-Bonafont, Anna M. Palau, and Luz M. Muand#241;oz Marquez
12 Diffusion of Policy Attention in Canada: Evidence from Speeches from the Th rone, 1960and#150;2008
Martial Foucault and and#201;ric Montpetit
13 Conclusion: What It Takes to Turn Agenda Setting from an Approach into a Theory
Christoffer Green-Pedersen and Stefaan Walgrave
Appendix
References
Notes on Contributors
General Index
Index of Cited Authors