Agenda Setting and Democratic Innovation: The Case of the Sustainable Communities Act (2007)

This article suggests that a common feature among democratic innovations is the lack of an agenda setting function. First, it argues that a lack of control over their own agendas opens democratic innovations to manipulation by elites. Second, it argues that democratic innovations focused on setting...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPolitics (Manchester, England) Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 10 - 20
Main Author Bua, Adrian
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2012
SAGE Publications
Subjects
Agenda Setting
Citizens
councils
Democracy
Elites
Environmental policy
Government
Innovations
Institutions
Legislation
Manipulation
Policy Making
Politics
Sustainable development
United Kingdom
British Isles
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Summary:This article suggests that a common feature among democratic innovations is the lack of an agenda setting function. First, it argues that a lack of control over their own agendas opens democratic innovations to manipulation by elites. Second, it argues that democratic innovations focused on setting the policy agendas of public authorities can serve to democratise the policy process by providing citizens with a tool to place issues on the public agenda. The article analyses a series of actual and potential institutional designs that divert from the dominant ‘direct-democratic’ nature of agenda setting innovations. It finishes with a discussion of the UK Sustainable Communities Act (2007), a process designed to allow communities to propose policy to government through their councils.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-LVJ8BXCX-H
istex:CED45E343258281AC1610CB2F5D045D0D447D175
ArticleID:PONL1420
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ObjectType-Article-2
ObjectType-Feature-1
ISSN:0263-3957
1467-9256
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9256.2011.01420.x