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The UK Policy Agendas Project seeks to develop systematic measures of the policy agenda of British government and politics over time. It applies the policy content coding system of the original Policy Agendas Project in the United States, founded by Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones, with the aim of creating a consistent record of the issues that are attended to at different points in time, across many of the main venues of British public policy and politics – namely in parliament, the media and public opinion. The reliability of these measures of policy attention are ensured through adherence to clearly defined coding rules and standards, which give us confidence that changes in the priorities of government can be tracked consistently over time and in different arenas of politics.
Location: University of Edinburgh; University of Southampton
Email: shaun.bevan@gmail.com; shaun.bevan@ed.ac.uk
Downloadable Data Series: 12
Time Span: 1910-2015
Total Observations: 125,539
Our book Policy Agendas in British Politics (Palgrave Macmillan) traces the attention of British government to different policy topics since 1945, showing how issues such as the economy, international affairs, crime and immigration have risen and fallen on the agenda. The book throws new light on the key points of change in British politics, such as Thatcherism and New Labour. Building on existing approaches to agenda-setting (incrementalism, the issue...
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