Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-92wsb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-18T20:02:18.599Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Changing the transmission belt: the programme-to-policy link in Italy between the First and Second Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2018

Marcello Carammia ,
Enrico Borghetto  and
Shaun Bevan
Marcello Carammia
Affiliation:
Institute for European Studies, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
Enrico Borghetto*
Affiliation:
Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences – CICS.NOVA, NOVA University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
Shaun Bevan
Affiliation:
Politics and International Relations, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: enrico.borghetto@fcsh.unl.pt
Get access

Abstract

This article analyses the transmission of policy priorities from electoral campaigns to legislative outputs under different institutional configurations. Taking an agenda-setting approach, the article tests whether a mandate effect exists, if incumbents also uptake the priorities of their competitors, and whether and how the introduction of alternation in government impacts on these dynamics. The analysis relies on data sets of the Italian Agendas Project recording the issue content of party manifestos and laws and covering the period 1983–2012. The results of time series cross-sectional models lend support to the presence of a mandate effect in Italy, a mechanism which was strengthened after the introduction of alternation in government. Opposition priorities may have an impact on the legislative agenda, but mostly when considering the legislation initiated in Parliament. Our findings have important implications for the understanding of the impact of government alternation, an institutional feature underlying – with varying intensity – most democracies, on the functioning of democratic representation.

Keywords

agenda-settingparliamentelectoral mandateoppositionissue attention

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , Volume 48 , Special Issue 3: Policy Agendas in Italy , November 2018 , pp. 275 - 288
Copyright
© Società Italiana di Scienza Politica 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adler, ES Wilkerson, JD (2013) Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Armingeon, K, Isler, C, Knöpfel, L, Weisstanner, D Engler, S (2016) Codebook: Comparative Political Data Set 1960-2014, Bern: Institute of Political Science, University of Bern.Google Scholar
Bartolini, S (2000) Collusion, competition and democracy: part II. Journal of Theoretical Politics 12(1): 33–65.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, F, Brouard, S Grossman, E (2010) Agenda-setting dynamics in France: revisiting the “partisan hypothesis”. French Politics 7(2): 75–95.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, FR, Jones, BD Wilkerson, J (2011) Comparative studies of policy dynamics. Comparative Political Studies 44(8): 947–972.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, FR Jones, BD (2015) Politics of Information, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Bevan, S, John, P Jennings, W (2011) Keeping party programmes on track: the transmission of the policy agendas of executive speeches to legislative outputs in the United Kingdom. European Political Science Review 3(3): 395–417.Google Scholar
Blomqvist, P Green-Pedersen, C (2004) Defeat at home? Issue-ownership and social democratic support in Scandinavia. Government and Opposition 39(4): 587–613.Google Scholar
Borghetto, E Carammia, M (2010) L’analisi comparata delle agende politiche: il Comparative Agendas Project. Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica 2, 301–315.Google Scholar
Borghetto, E Carammia, M (2015) The influence of coalition parties on executive agendas in Italy (1983-2008), in N Conti and F Marangoni (eds). The Challenge of Coalition Government: The Italian Case, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 36–57.Google Scholar
Borghetto, E, Carammia, M Zucchini, F (2014) The impact of party policy priorities on Italian law-making from the First to the Second Republic (1983-2006), in S Walgrave and C Green-Pedersen (eds). Agenda Setting, Policies, and Political Systems, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, pp. 164–182.Google Scholar
Borghetto, E, Curini, L, Giuliani, M, Pellegata, A Zucchini, F (2012) Italian law-making archive: a new tool for the analysis of the Italian legislative process. Rivista Italiana Di Scienza Politica 2012(3): 481–502.Google Scholar
Brambor, T, Clark, WR Golder, M (2005) Understanding interaction models: improving empirical analyses. Political Analysis 14(1): 63–82.Google Scholar
Brouard, S, Grossman, E, Guinaudeau, I, Persico, S Froio, C ( Forthcoming) ‘Do party manifestos matter in policy-making? Capacities, incentives and outcomes of electoral programmes in France’, Political Studies.Google Scholar
Budge, I (2015) Issue emphases, saliency theory and issue ownership: a historical and conceptual analysis. West European Politics 38(4): 761–777.Google Scholar
Budge, I Farlie, D (1983) Party competition-selective emphasis or direct confrontation? An alternative view with data, in H Daalder and P Mair (eds). West European Party Systems: Continuity and Change, London: Sage, pp. 267–305.Google Scholar
Budge, I Hofferbert, RI (1990) Mandates and policy outputs: U.S. party platforms and federal expenditures. The American Political Science Review 84(1): 111–131.Google Scholar
Budge, I Keman, H (eds). (1990) How Party Government Works: Testing a Theory of Formation, Functioning and Termination in 20 Democracies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cobb, RW Elder, CD (1983) Participation in American Politics: the Dynamics of Agenda-Building, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Curini, L. Zucchini, F (2012) Government alternation and legislative party unity: the case of Italy, 1988–2008. West European Politics 35(4): 826–846.Google Scholar
Damore, DF (2004) The dynamics of issue ownership in presidential campaigns. Political Research Quarterly 57(3): 391–397.Google Scholar
Di Palma, G (1977) Surviving Without Governing: The Italian Parties in Parliament, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Froio, C, Bevan, S Jennings, W (2016) Party mandates and the politics of attention: party platforms, public priorities and the policy agenda in Britain. Party Politics 23(6): 692–703.Google Scholar
Giuliani, M (2008) Patterns of consensual law-making in the Italian Parliament. South European Society and Politics 13(1): 61–85.Google Scholar
Green-Pedersen, C Mortensen, PB (2010) Who sets the agenda and who responds to it in the Danish parliament? A new model of issue competition and agenda-setting. European Journal of Political Research 49(2): 257–281.Google Scholar
Green-Pedersen, C Walgrave, S (2014) Agenda-setting, policies, and political systems. A Comparative Approach, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hall, RL Deardorff, AV (2006) Lobbying as legislative subsidy. American Political Science Review 100(1), 69–84.Google Scholar
Hofferbert, RI Budge, I (1992) The party mandate and the Westminster model: election programmes and government spending in Britain, 1948-85. British Journal of Political Science 22(2): 151–182.Google Scholar
Ignazi, P (2017) Sartori’s party system typology and the Italian case: the unanticipated outcome of a polarised pluralism without anti-system parties. Contemporary Italian Politics 9(3): 262–276.Google Scholar
Imbeau, LM, Pétry, F Lamari, M (2001) Left-right party ideology and government policies: a meta-analysis. European Journal of Political Research 40(1): 1–29.Google Scholar
Jones, BD (1994) Reconceiving Decision-Making in Democratic Politics: Attention, Choice, and Public Policy, Chicago, IL: University Of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jones, BD Baumgartner, FR (2005) The Politics of Attention: How Government Prioritizes Problems, Chicago, IL: University Of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kingdon, JW (1984) Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.Google Scholar
Klingemann, H-D, Hofferbert, RI Budge, I (1994) Parties, Policies, and Democracy, Oxford: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Kreppel, A (2009) Executive-legislative relations and legislative agenda setting in Italy: from Leggine to Decreti and Deleghe. Bulletin of Italian Politics 1(2): 183–209.Google Scholar
Laakso, M Taagepera, R (1979) Effective number of parties: a measure with application to West Europe. Comparative Political Studies 12(1): 3–27.Google Scholar
Lijphart, A (2012) Patterns of Democracy, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, J (2003) Rethinking representation. American Political Science Review 97(4): 515–528.Google Scholar
Mansergh, L Thomson, R (2007) Election pledges, party competition, and policymaking. Comparative Politics 39, 311–329.Google Scholar
McDonald, MD Budge, I (2005) Elections, Parties, Democracy: Conferring the Median Mandate, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McDonald, MD, Mendes, SM Budge, I (2004) What are elections for? Conferring the median mandate. British Journal of Political Science 34(1): 1–26.Google Scholar
Moury, C (2011) Italian coalitions and electoral promises: assessing the democratic performance of the Prodi I and Berlusconi II - governments. Modern Italy 16(1): 35–50.Google Scholar
Newell, JL (2000) Parties and Democracy in Italy, Aldershot and Dover, VT: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Pellegata, A (2016) Assessing the complex relationship between government alternation and ideological congruence. International Political Science Review 37(1): 51–65.Google Scholar
Persico, S, Froio, C Guinaudeau, I (2012) Action publique et partis politiques. Gouvernement et action publique 1(1): 11–35.Google Scholar
Petrocik, JR. (1996) Issue ownership in presidential elections, with a 1980 case study. American Journal of Political Science 40(3): 825–850.Google Scholar
Przeworski, A, Stokes, SC Manin, B (eds). (1999) Democracy, Accountability, and Representation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rebessi, E Zucchini, F (2018) The role of the Italian Constitutional Court in the policy agenda. Persistence and change between the First and Second Republic. Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica 1–17, doi:10.1017/ipo.2018.12.Google Scholar
Robertson, DB (1976) A Theory of Party Competition, London: Wiley.Google Scholar
Russo, F (2015) Two steps forward and one step back: the majority principle in the Italian Parliament since 1994. Contemporary Italian Politics 7(1): 27–41.Google Scholar
Sartori, G (1976) Parties and Party Systems: A Theoretical Framework, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Seeberg, HB (2013) The opposition’s policy influence through issue politicisation. Journal of Public Policy 33(1): 89–107.Google Scholar
Sides, J (2006) The origins of campaign agendas. British Journal of Political Science 36(3): 407–436.Google Scholar
Sigelman, L Buell, EH (2004) Avoidance or engagement? Issue convergence in U.S. presidential campaigns, 1960–2000. American Journal of Political Science 48(4): 650–661.Google Scholar
Stimson, JA, Mackuen, MB Erikson, RS (1995) Dynamic representation. The American Political Science Review 89(3): 543–565.Google Scholar
Strøm, K (1990) Minority Government and Majority Rule, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sulkin, T (2005) Issue Politics in Congress , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Verzichelli, L Cotta, M (2000) Italy: FROM “constrained” coalitions to alternating governments, in W Müller and K Strøm (eds). Coalition Governments in Western Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 433–497.Google Scholar
Visconti, F (2018) ‘The legislative representation of public opinion policy priorities in Italy’, Italian Political Science Review.Google Scholar
Vliegenthart, R, Walgrave, S, Baumgartner, FR, Bevan, S, Breunig, C, Brouard, S, Bonafont, LC, Grossman, E, Jennings, W, Mortensen, PB, Palau, AM, Sciarini, P Tresch, A (2016) Do the media set the parliamentary agenda? A Comparative Study in Seven Countries. European Journal of Political Research 55(2): 283–301.Google Scholar
Volkens, A, Lehmann, P, Matthieß, T, Merz, N, Regel, S Werner, A (2015) ‘The Manifesto Data Collection. Manifesto Project (MRG/CMP/MARPOR). Version 2015a’. Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB).Google Scholar
Wlezien, C Soroka, SN (2012) Political institutions and the opinion–policy link. West European Politics 35(6): 1407–1432.Google Scholar
Zucchini, F (2011) Government alternation and legislative agenda setting. European Journal of Political Research 50(6): 749–774.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Carammia et al. supplementary material

Appendix

Download Carammia et al. supplementary material(File)
File 3.7 MB