Abstract
In this chapter—and in the two that follow—we statistically uncover major and minor epochs in the post-war British policy agenda. Our focus is items in the Speech from the Throne and the topics of Acts of Parliament, which as we have discussed above, provide an important portrait of the executive agenda. Attention to laws and to speeches correlates highly for many, but not all, policy topics. So, with the data described in the preceding chapter, we are able to appraise the different accounts of agenda setting, namely, incrementalism, the issue attention cycle, punctuated equilibrium and focused adaptation. Much of the chapter reports on the trends, changes and cycles in major policy topics during the postwar years. Our inspection reveals periods of large changes in the content of the agenda, which reflect the emergence of new policy problems and the setting of new priorities by political parties after winning elections. In fact, what is so interesting about these data we present—for topics like agriculture, civil rights, health, education and crime—is how much they change in importance across the decades since 1945.
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© 2013 Peter John, Anthony Bertelli, Will Jennings and Shaun Bevan
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John, P., Bertelli, A., Jennings, W., Bevan, S. (2013). Change and Stability in Executive and Legislative Agendas. In: Policy Agendas in British Politics. Comparative Studies of Political Agendas Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230390409_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230390409_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-230-39042-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-39040-9
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