The project is designed to explore the overarching hypothesis that policy feedback mechanisms have undergone substantial changes in both strength and type over time, and that these changes have had profound implications for the functioning of representative democracy.
We argue that changing policy feedback mechanisms can explain why political actors are finding it increasingly difficult to design effective policies, build lasting constituencies on the basis of policy programs, form electoral and parliamentary coalitions, and ultimately, address pressing social problems through policy making.
The program rests on three main pillars. The first is a unique longitudinal dataset measuring environmental, immigration, and social policies in 30 countries over 45 years, which allow us to explore how policies in different areas creates feedback to political representatives through changes in public support. The second is a dataset consisting of monthly vote intention polls for all parliamentary parties in the policy data sample, which will be used to assess how policy introductions affect support for incumbents. The third pillar consist in cross-national survey experiment which will be used to study how policies shape support for political representatives on the level of individuals.
The program hopes to contribute to comparative policy research, but also to the debate about the predicaments of contemporary democracies.
