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32 Pol'y Stud. J. 1 (2004)

handle is hein.journals/plyssjnl32 and id is 1 raw text is: The Policy Studies Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2004 Representation and Agenda Setting Bryan D. Jones and Frank R. Baumgartner We develop a new approach to the study of representation based on agenda setting and attention allo- cation. We ask the fundamental question: do the policy priorities of the public and of the government correspond across time? To assess the policy priorities of the mass public, we have coded the Most Important Problem data from Gallup polls across the postwar period into the policy content categories developed by the Policy Agendas Project (Baumgartner & Jones, 2002). Congressional priorities were assessed by the proportion of total hearings in a given year focusing on those same policy categories, also from the Agendas Project. We then conducted similar analyses on public laws and most impor- tant laws, similarly coded. Finally we analyzed the spatial structure of public and congressional agendas using the Shepard-Kruskal non-metric multidimensional scaling algorithm. Findings may be summarized as follows: First, there is an impressive congruence between the priorities of the public and the priori- ties of Congress across time. Second, there is substantial evidence of congruence between the priorities of the public and lawmaking in the national government, but the correspondence is attenuated in comparison to agendas. Third, although the priorities of the public and Con- gress are structurally similar, the location of issues within the structure differs between Con- gress and the general public. The public lumps its evaluation of the nations most important problems into a small number of categories. Congress splits issues out, handling multiple issues simultaneously. Finally, the public tends to focus on a very constrained set of issues, but Congress juggles many more issues. The article has strong implications for the study of positional representation as well, because for tra- ditional representation to occur, there must be correspondence between the issue-priorities of the public and the government. We find substantial evidence for such attention congruence here. I. Representation and Attention Problem solving is a critical component of competent government, and prob- lems cannot be solved without attending to them.' But problem solving is not the sole, nor even the most cited, standard for judging democratic government. Much more of the political science literature has centered on representation than on problem solving. Of course, the two need not be at odds; surely the opinions of the public are critical in assessing the nature of problems facing a government. But they need not exactly correspond, either. So in this article we add a new approach to the study of representation with a focus on problem solving. Quite simply, we ask 1 0162-895X © 2004 The Policy Studies Journal Published by Blackwell Publishing. Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 IJF, UK.