Democracy’s Denominator Reassessing Responsiveness with Public Opinion on the National Policy Agenda

摘要: Democratic responsiveness concerns the degree to which government policies match public preferences. Responsiveness studies typically use national surveys characterize opinion, but whether poll questions overlap with policy agenda is unknown. The first of two empirical analyses presented here, hundreds issues on in United States from 1947 2000, reveals that opinion mostly unrelated outcomes. picture appears be even more ominous—that is, and are negatively related—on highly salient attract media attention. A second study revisiting published work confirms patterns look different depending upon opinion-policy connections (a) begin survey data then examine developments, or (b) legislative data. Thus, conclusions about democratic depend examined, often do not include tangible options. In sense, future changes might go undetected because scholars lack what goes into denominator democracy.