When Does Government Listen to the Public? Voluntary Associations and Dynamic Agenda Representation in the United States
研究了美国1971-2001年间志愿协会规模如何影响公众议题优先序转化为政策议程的过程，发现协会数量对总统国情咨文中的公众-政策关联有正向调节作用，但在政策周期后期效果不显著。
Abstract The aim of the article is to examine how the population size of voluntary associations affects the process through which the public's issue priorities are translated into policy priorities. We conduct a time series analysis of political attention in executive and legislative agendas at the U.S. federal level in the period 1971–2001, covering all issues addressed by the U.S. government. We show that the number of voluntary associations in a policy area has a positive conditioning effect on the link between public priorities and attention for the president's State of the Union Address. However, our results do not find a positive effect for voluntary associations at later stages of the policy cycle, which experience a higher degree of institutional friction. The findings underline the importance of distinguishing between different stages of policymaking when considering the impact of voluntary associations on dynamic agenda responsiveness.