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

• Published in: Politics (Manchester, England) Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 10 - 20
• Main Author: Bua, Adrian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• 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

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...