Responsive Government? Public Opinion and Government Policy Preferences in Britain and Denmark

2005 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Binzer Hobolt ◽  
Robert Klemmemsen
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Policy Responsiveness ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Government Responsiveness ◽  
The Relationship

The ability of a political system to respond to the preferences of its citizens is central to democratic theory and practice; yet most empirical research on government responsiveness has concentrated on the United States. As a result, we know very little about the nature of government policy responsiveness in Europe and we have a poor understanding of the conditions that affect cross-national variations. This comparative study examines the relationship between public opinion and policy preferences in the United Kingdom and Denmark during the past three decades. We address two key questions: First, are the government's policy intentions driven by public opinion or vice versa? Second, do political institutions influence the level of government responsiveness? We suggest that public opinion tends to drive the government's policy intentions due to the threat of electoral sanction, and that this is more pronounced in proportional systems than in majoritarian democracies.

Government Responsiveness and Political Competition in Comparative Perspective

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Binzer Hobolt ◽  
Robert Klemmensen
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Responsiveness ◽  
Primary Mechanism ◽  
Time Series Analyses ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Government Responsiveness

Governments in democratic systems are expected to respond to the issue preferences of citizens. Yet we have a limited understanding of the factors that cause levels of responsiveness to vary across time and between countries. In this article, the authors suggest that political contestation is the primary mechanism driving policy responsiveness and that this, in turn, is mediated by political institutions and government popularity. To test this proposition, the authors analyze the responsiveness of executive policy promises (speeches) and policy actions (public expenditure) in Britain, Denmark, and the United States in the period from 1970 to 2005. These time-series analyses show that higher levels of political contestation are associated with more responsive executives.

Preferences, Problems and Representation

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 659-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Jennings ◽  
Christopher Wlezien
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Aggregate Level ◽  
Survey Question ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Over Time

Scholars studying opinion representation often rely on a survey question that asks about the “most important problem” (MIP) facing the nation. While it is known that MIP responses reflect public priorities, less is known about their connection to policy preferences. This article directly addresses the issue. First, it conceptualizes policy preferences and MIP responses, specifically considering the possibility that the latter may be either policy or outcome based. Second, using aggregate-level data from the United States and the United Kingdom, it then examines the correspondence between public spending preferences and MIP responses over time. The results indicate that MIP responses and spending preferences tap very different things, and that using MIP responses substantially understates the representational relationship between public opinion and policy.

Opinion–Policy Dynamics: Public Preferences and Public Expenditure in the United Kingdom

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 665-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
STUART N. SOROKA ◽  
CHRISTOPHER WLEZIEN
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Policy Dynamics ◽  
The Relationship

Work exploring the relationship between public opinion and public policy over time has largely been restricted to the United States. A wider application of this line of research can provide insights into how representation varies across political systems, however. This article takes a first step in this direction using a new body of data on public opinion and government spending in Britain. The results of analyses reveal that the British public appears to notice and respond (thermostatically) to changes in public spending in particular domains, perhaps even more so than in the United States. They also reveal that British policymakers represent these preferences in spending, though the magnitude and structure of this response is less pronounced and more general. The findings are suggestive about the structuring role of institutions.

scholarly journals Separation of Church and State, American Exceptionalism, and the Contemporary Social Moment: Viewing Church–State Separation from the Priority of Slavery

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Joseph Prud'homme
Keyword(s):  
Church And State ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Antebellum South ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Institutional Forces ◽  
Governmental Institutions ◽  
Religious Establishment ◽  
The Relationship

The contemporary social moment in the United States has affirmed the critical importance of racial justice, and especially claims to justice informed by the contributions of structural and institutional forces connected with the nation’s original sin of slavery. In this paper, I examine the contributions of strict church–state separationism to the maintenance of slavery in the antebellum South in comparison to the contributions various forms of religious establishment made to the successful abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom and the British Empire. Developing a deeper historical understanding of the ways the relationship between religious and governmental institutions influenced the abolition and maintenance of slavery can assist the contemporary quest for racial justice.

Trust in Government and the American Public’s Responsiveness to Rising Inequality

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 790-804 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
State Level ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Combine Data ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
The Relationship

The United States has become increasingly unequal. Income inequality has risen dramatically since the 1970s, yet public opinion toward redistribution has remained largely unchanged. This is puzzling, given Americans’ professed concern regarding, and knowledge of, rising inequality. I argue that trust in government can help to reconcile this. I combine data on state-level income inequality with survey data from the Cumulative American National Election Studies (CANES) from 1984 to 2016. I find that trust in government conditions the relationship between inequality and redistribution, with higher inequality prompting demand for government redistribution, but only among politically trustful individuals. This holds among conservatives and non-conservatives and among the affluent and non-affluent. These findings underscore the relevance of political trust in shaping attitudes toward inequality and economic redistribution and contribute to our understanding of why American public opinion has not turned in favor of redistribution during an era of rising income inequality.

scholarly journals Intersecting race and gender stereotypes: Implications for group-level attitudes

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 1172-1184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis E. Phills ◽  
Amanda Williams ◽  
Jennifer M. Wolff ◽  
Ashley Smith ◽  
Rachel Arnold ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Men ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
South Asians ◽  
The United States ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Minority Men ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship

Two studies examined the relationship between explicit stereotyping and prejudice by investigating how stereotyping of minority men and women may be differentially related to prejudice. Based on research and theory related to the intersectional invisibility hypothesis (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008), we hypothesized that stereotyping of minority men would be more strongly related to prejudice than stereotyping of minority women. Supporting our hypothesis, in both the United Kingdom (Study 1) and the United States (Study 2), when stereotyping of Black men and women were entered into the same regression model, only stereotyping of Black men predicted prejudice. Results were inconsistent in regard to South Asians and East Asians. Results are discussed in terms of the intersectional invisibility hypothesis (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008) and the gendered nature of the relationship between stereotyping and attitudes.

The Conundrum of Reform: A Comparative Analysis

1988 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia W. Ingraham ◽  
B. Guy Peters
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
The United States ◽  
Civil Service Reform ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Design Considerations ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Procedural Reform ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross National

Despite obvious cross-national political and cultural differences, civil service reform policies exhibit strong similarities. An examination of reform efforts in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia emphasizes the centrality of politics and political processes to administrative reform. This is true for mechanical or procedural reform, structural reform and what we termed “relational reforms,” or, reforms aimed at restructuring the relationship between politicians and career civil servants. The overriding influence of politics reduces policy design considerations and often results in solutions that do not match the problems being addressed. The outcomes are new bureaucratic problems and the need for additional reforms.

Relationship of the production of the toxin, cerato-ulmin, to synnemata formation, pathogenicity, mycelial habit, and growth of Ceratocystis ulmi isolates

1980 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 658-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shozo Takai
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Radial Growth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Measurable Quantity ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Forty-seven isolates of Ceratocystis ulmi collected from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, and Iran were classified with respect to their ability to produce cerato-ulmin (CU) and synnemata, their radial growth, mycelial habit, and pathogenicity.Twenty-nine isolates clearly produced CU in a measurable quantity while 18 isolates produced it only in trace quantities. In general, the former produced fluffy mycelium and were active in synnemata formation. They were aggressive in pathogenicity with one exception. The latter group of isolates generally produced waxy, yeastlike mycelium and formed very few synnemata. They were all nonaggressive in pathogenicity. Radial growth was generally higher among the isolates that produced CU in larger quantities than among those producing CU in trace quantities. The relationship between CU production and pathogenicity affords a method for estimating isolate pathogenicity without the need for host inoculation.

Testing the national identity argument

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Miller ◽  
Sundas Ali
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
National Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
National Attachment ◽  
The Relationship

The national identity argument holds that a shared national identity is necessary to motivate citizens in democratic societies to pursue a number of goals, especially social justice. We review the empirical evidence for and against this claim, looking particularly at how national identities have been measured. We distinguish between studies that aim to compare the relative strength of identities cross-nationally and those that look at individual differences within one nation. We separate four dimensions of national identity: national attachment, national pride, critical vs. uncritical patriotism, and civic vs. cultural conceptions of identity. These are only weakly correlated with each other, and impact differently on support for social justice and the welfare state. Using case studies from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, we suggest that the relationship between national identity and social justice varies between societies, and that a key factor is finding an appropriate balance between the strength of such identities and their inclusiveness.

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