2018/10/30 by Christopher Wratil · 40 citations
Medicine · Social Sciences · #Business #Computer science #Economic policy #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #European union #Law #Linkage (software) #Medicine #Member state #Member states #Policy Transfer and Learning #Political Systems and Governance #Political science #Politics #Public administration #Public opinion #Representation (politics) #Salient #State (computer science) #Weighting
paper · doi:10.1111/ajps.12403
published in American Journal of Political Science 63(1), 197-211 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2018/10/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract A key feature of federal systems is the representation of subnational units by “territorial representatives” in policymaking at the federal level. How do such arrangements influence the linkage between public opinion and policy outputs? I argue that policymaking under territorial representation should be systematically skewed toward opinion in those states where citizens care about a policy issue and have a uniform view on it. This claim is tested using a novel data set of policy change in the European Union (EU), covering 211 policy issues and 6,506 observations of opinion–policy dyads. Results show that measures weighting opinion across member states by how much national citizens care about an issue are better predictors of policy change than EU‐wide mean opinion. Moreover, congruence between state‐level opinion and EU‐level policy becomes more likely, the more salient and clear‐cut opinion in a member state is. These findings refine our understanding of the opinion–policy linkage under territorial representation.