Party government and policy responsiveness

Dimiter Toshkov; Lars Mäder; Anne Rasmussen

doi:10.1017/S0143814X18000417

Party government and policy responsiveness

Dimiter Toshkov, Lars Mäder, Anne Rasmussen

Center for Europæisk Politik

6 Citationer (Scopus)

Abstract

Does party government moderate the responsiveness of public policy to public opinion? Analysing a new dataset, we examine whether the ability of governments to respond to the public on 306 specific policy issues in Denmark, Germany and the UK is affected by the extent of coalition conflict and by the fit of the considered policy changes with the government preferences. We find a systematic but relatively weak positive impact of public support on the likelihood and speed of policy change. Contrary to expectations, a higher number of coalition partners are not associated with fewer policy changes nor with weaker responsiveness to public opinion. We also find no evidence that responsiveness to public opinion is necessarily weaker for policy changes that go against the preferences of the government. Rather, it appears that public and government support for policy change are substitute resources.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Tidsskrift	Journal of Public Policy
Antal sider	19
ISSN	0143-814X
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0143814X18000417
Status	Udgivet - 2018

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AU - Mäder, Lars

AU - Rasmussen, Anne

PY - 2018

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N2 - Does party government moderate the responsiveness of public policy to public opinion? Analysing a new dataset, we examine whether the ability of governments to respond to the public on 306 specific policy issues in Denmark, Germany and the UK is affected by the extent of coalition conflict and by the fit of the considered policy changes with the government preferences. We find a systematic but relatively weak positive impact of public support on the likelihood and speed of policy change. Contrary to expectations, a higher number of coalition partners are not associated with fewer policy changes nor with weaker responsiveness to public opinion. We also find no evidence that responsiveness to public opinion is necessarily weaker for policy changes that go against the preferences of the government. Rather, it appears that public and government support for policy change are substitute resources.

AB - Does party government moderate the responsiveness of public policy to public opinion? Analysing a new dataset, we examine whether the ability of governments to respond to the public on 306 specific policy issues in Denmark, Germany and the UK is affected by the extent of coalition conflict and by the fit of the considered policy changes with the government preferences. We find a systematic but relatively weak positive impact of public support on the likelihood and speed of policy change. Contrary to expectations, a higher number of coalition partners are not associated with fewer policy changes nor with weaker responsiveness to public opinion. We also find no evidence that responsiveness to public opinion is necessarily weaker for policy changes that go against the preferences of the government. Rather, it appears that public and government support for policy change are substitute resources.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - coalition government

KW - legislative decisionmaking

KW - party government

KW - policy change

KW - policy responsiveness

KW - political parties

U2 - 10.1017/S0143814X18000417

DO - 10.1017/S0143814X18000417

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0143-814X

JO - Journal of Public Policy

JF - Journal of Public Policy

ER -

Party government and policy responsiveness

Abstract

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