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2017 | Buch

Introduction Kapitel lesen Erstes Kapitel lesen

Policy Agendas in Australia

verfasst von: Keith Dowding, Aaron Martin

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book contributes to and expands on the major international Comparative Policy Agendas Project. It sets the project in context, and provides a comprehensive assessment of the changing policy agenda in Australia over a forty-year period, using a unique systematic dataset of governor-general speeches, legislation and parliamentary questions, and then mapping these on to media coverage and what the public believes (according to poll evidence) government should be concentrating upon. The book answers some important questions in political science: what are the most important legislative priorities for government over time? Does the government follow talk with action? Does government attend to the issues the public identifies as most important? And how does media attention follow the policy agenda? The authors deploy their unique dataset to provide a new and exciting perspective on the nature of Australian public policy and the Comparative Policy Agendas Project more broadly.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
This book aims to achieve a systematic understanding of policy agendas in Australia, using the measurement scheme of the Policy Agendas Project (PAP). By coding different aspects of the policy agenda, we are able to answer important questions in Australian and comparative politics: How much legislative attention is spent on policy domains such as education and how does this change over time? Do governments respond to crises such as September 11 with radical shifts in legislative attention? Are commitments set out by the prime minister in the governor-general’s speech subsequently delivered on or, to put it another way, what is the relationship between talk and action? Is the government paying attention to policy areas the public deems to be important, and how does public opinion map on to legislation more generally? How does media attention condition legislative attention? To what extent does Australia conform to and deviate from international patterns?
Keith Dowding, Aaron Martin

Theory and Measurement of the Policy Agendas Project

Frontmatter
Chapter 2. The Policy Agenda: Attention, Content, and Style
Abstract
This chapter opens with an outline of various accounts of policy change, such as structure-induced equilibrium, veto-player theory, incrementalism, the policy network literature, heritage accounts, and policy learning, and discusses the value of detailed narrative accounts. It then introduces the Comparative Agendas Project (CAP) and its systematic account of policy change. It provides a justification of the taxonomic principles underlying the coding scheme, briefly describing the Australian data. It makes a clear distinction between policy attention – which is what CAP measures – and content or substance and implementation style, addressed in most other approaches. It provides a justification of why policy attention is so important in studying policy change.
Keith Dowding, Aaron Martin
Chapter 3. Theories and Concepts
Abstract
This chapter considers the patterns of policy change found around the world by CAP. It explains why this book does not use some of the language associated with CAP, notably punctuated equilibrium. It discusses constrained attention and defines both punctuations and turning points – which we argue are the most important elements of the pattern of policy attention. It then provides the first comprehensive review of the explanations offered for the patterns in policy attention that have been found around the world, examining and applying them to policy attention and content or substance: randomness, slip-stick dynamics, bounded rationality, crises and attention cycles, policy entrepreneurs and venue shopping, framing, party effects, path dependence, and institutional feedback.
Keith Dowding, Aaron Martin

Australian Politics

Frontmatter
Chapter 4. Political Institutions and Policy in Australia
Abstract
This chapter explains the political institutions of Australia for readers unfamiliar with the system. It runs through the nature of the executive as a prime ministerial system, the characteristics of Australian federalism, the bicameral legislature and the electoral system, and the role of the opposition in parliament. It then explains the nature of the public service and gives a brief account of society in Australia. It gives an overview of policy in Australia – organized by the prime minister, from Robert Menzies to Tony Abbott – running through the major legislative changes that have taken place. It discusses how we might infer an agenda from the nature of political change at the executive level, from turning points to relative stability.
Keith Dowding, Aaron Martin

Agendas Within Formal Institutions

Frontmatter
Chapter 5. Executive and Legislative Agendas
Abstract
This chapter is the first of the major empirical chapters, with 18 figures and two tables. It analyses the executive and legislative agendas, finding substantial correspondence in many codes. Where they diverge is often because legislation is not needed for the executive to act in a particular policy domain. The chapter demonstrates the waning importance of defence and agriculture as well as transport and government operations, and significant increases in attention to health and social welfare – consistent with findings around the world. Also in line with other CAP analysis, neither elections nor parties are important drivers of agenda change, even after watershed elections. Party influence on attention change is low but will be higher for policy content. We find some evidence of focused adaption and some reframing of issues.
Keith Dowding, Aaron Martin
Chapter 6. Describing Legislative Patterns
Abstract
The second major data chapter includes five figures. It examines policy change year by year. It has three aims: (1) to identify the number of punctuations in the Australian policy agenda; (2) to examine the content of punctuations and conduct analysis of the minor codes; (3) to examine the link between punctuations and long-term policy change as found in the previous chapter. We find 57 punctuations in Australian legislation over 47 years. The codes are not equally punctuated. In that way Australia resembles other countries. However, punctuations emanate from quite different sources, and many are artefacts of coding, with diverse legislation that happens to fall under one code. Punctuations seem random and not linked to long-term change. Incremental change over time seems more important.
Keith Dowding, Aaron Martin
Chapter 7. Opposition Agendas
Abstract
This chapter examines the parliamentary opposition’s agenda, using question time as the measure. The opposition agenda tends to follow spikes in legislative attention, demonstrating the opposition’s difficulty in seizing the agenda. One obvious trend in the twenty-first century is growing opposition time on defence and international affairs. The opposition concentrates on crisis issues, with most codes disconnected from legislative trends. The economy becomes prominent at times, but the opposition agenda is opportunistic; immigration and environment are easy to criticize but hard to legislate on. The opposition tends to chase issues that later cause it problems when in power. Greater divisiveness emerges in recent years, with wedge issues being exploited by oppositions seeking electoral advantage, meaning some important legislative issues barely appear on the opposition agenda.
Keith Dowding, Aaron Martin

Outside Influence: Media and Public Agendas

Frontmatter
Chapter 8. The Media Agenda
Abstract
This chapter turns to forces outside of formal political institutions. It measures media attention using The Australian, with front-page stories coded at the major code level, applying a constructed-week sampling technique. The role of the media is to hold government to account, but they ignore vast swathes of legislative activity, concentrating attention on issues such as labour and immigration, the environment, and international affairs. Media attention outstrips legislative attention, more so in recent years. It has a similar though not identical pattern to the opposition agenda. We see the media in ‘alarm’ rather than ‘patrol’ mode. At times some issues (such as international affairs in 2003) dominate the media agenda, and this attention comes at the expense of other important issues.
Keith Dowding, Aaron Martin
Chapter 9. The Public Agenda
Abstract
This chapter use public opinion data from Roy Morgan on the most important issues facing Australia, matched to CAP policy codes. As in other countries, the public identifies a small number of issues as the most important: economics, health, and education. At times other issues emerge as important: labour and immigration, the environment, and defence. We find evidence that government responds to public priorities, with a clear correspondence between legislative and public agendas in important policy areas. Although John Howard pushed labour and immigration onto the public agenda, many now list it as an important issue without its necessarily being a legislative priority. In contrast, Indigenous affairs is at times accorded high levels of legislative attention without large increases in public attention.
Keith Dowding, Aaron Martin

Conclusion and International Comparisons

Frontmatter
Chapter 10. Conclusion and Comparative Lessons
Abstract
In this chapter, we outline the book’s most salient findings, evaluating the pattern of policy agendas in Australia and placing it in a comparative perspective. We examine what this pattern means for democratic accountability in Australia and conclude by pointing to some ways forward for future CAP research. It is clear that one cannot fully explain policy change in Australia by looking only at Australia. We have mapped the changing policy agenda in Australia, noted what explains spikes and punctuations, and offered explanation of secular trends, but we have done so with the knowledge of the same or similar trends in other countries where researchers have used an identical coding frame. The next stage for CAP is systematic comparative analysis.
Keith Dowding, Aaron Martin
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Policy Agendas in Australia
verfasst von
Keith Dowding
Aaron Martin
Copyright-Jahr
2017
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-40805-7
Print ISBN
978-3-319-40804-0
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40805-7

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