Issue Hierarchization in Agenda‐Setting: The Case of the European Council Agenda
研究了欧盟议程设置中议题的层级化，以欧洲理事会议程为例，发现议程可同时包含多个首要议题和次要议题，且政策制定者会调动额外资源应对多个首要议题而非放弃次要议题。
Abstract Agenda‐setting scholars tend to search for a problem that receives the most policy attention, a so‐called primary issue. Since the concept of the primary issue is vague, this article aims to define and implement it in a framework of issue hierarchization leaning on the issue's place, space and framing on the agenda. The position and the hierarchy of issues are considered crucial elements of agenda‐setting but omitted in the literature. The article thus examines the hierarchy of issues in EU agenda‐setting, specifically on the case of the European Council agenda in the period December 2014–December 2020 using a holistic grading method. The findings show that the agenda can consist of more primary and several secondary issues at once. Interestingly, if more primary issues require policy attention, policy‐makers tend to mobilize additional resources to tackle them instead of dropping secondary issues off the agenda.