Comparative Agendas

Datasets

Datasets are described below. For more information, please visit the Quality of Government Research Group website (www.Q-dem.com).

Media

Media El Mundo

This database includes information about all the stories published in the front pages of El Mundo.

When using this data, please cite us as follows: Chaqués Bonafont, L., Palau, A. and Baumgartner, F.R., 2015. Agenda Dynamics in Spain. London: Palgrave.

50648 observations spanning the years 1996 to 2011
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Media El Pais

This database includes information about all the stories published in the front pages of El País.

When using this data, please cite us as follows: Chaqués Bonafont, L., Palau, A. and Baumgartner, F.R., 2015. Agenda Dynamics in Spain. London: Palgrave

56540 observations spanning the years 1996 to 2011
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Parliamentary & Legislative

Interest Groups Appearances in Parliamentary Committees

In this database, we have recorded all the appearances of interest organisations in all the parliamentary committees of the Congreso de los Diputados (Spanish lower chamber) from 1996 to 2015. In Spain, interest groups access to the Parliamentary arena is always mediated by parliamentary groups, which decide whether to invite an interest group, and what matters should be discussed. More precisely, article 54 of the rules of the Congreso de los Diputados states that parliamentary groups may invite individuals and organisations to participate in committee meetings to perform several functions: to contribute to developing the tasks of oversight policy implementation; to provide information about specific issues; and/or to explain specific policy positions on an issue. Article 54 also states that parliamentary groups may grant access to interest groups to participate in research commissions, created ad hoc for the discussion of specific issues like corruption scandals, or focusing events. In all cases, the committee board (mesa de la comisión) acts as a gatekeeper, setting the agenda for each session.

When using this data, please cite us as follows:Chaqués-Bonafont, L. and Muñoz Marquez, L.M., 2016. Explaining interest group access to parliamentary committees. West European Politics, 39(6), pp.1276-1298.

This dataset is not available in the trends tool.
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Laws

This database includes information about organic laws, ordinary laws, decree laws and legislative decrees.

Organic laws require the agreement of the absolute majority of members in the Chamber to be passed. They are also subject to limitations in terms of issue content. According to article 81 of the Spanish Constitution, organic laws regulate fundamental rights, the general electoral system, the approval of regional statutes (Estatutos de Autonomía), basic institutions like the Constitutional Court or the Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo) and the states of alert, emergency or siege. Since the Constitutional reform introduced in 2011, according to article 135, an organic law also regulates the maximum structural deficit that the state and regional authorities may have in relation to their gross domestic product.

Decree-laws are provisional regulatory acts passed by the executive in case of extraordinary and urgent need, when exceptional circumstances make following ordinary legislative procedure impossible. According to article 86 of the Spanish Constitution, they are also subjected to issue content restrictions as they can only deal with issues not related to the regulation of basic institutions, or fundamental rights or freedoms regulated in Title I of the Constitution. They are provisional because they have to be submitted for debate and voting by the entire Chamber of Deputies within thirty days of their promulgation. The voting is about the entire content of the decree-law, and deputies do not have the possibility to introduce specific amendments.

Legislative decrees are regulated by article 82 of the Spanish Constitution. The Chamber may delegate to the Government the power to issue rules with the force of law on specific matters not included in the list of issues that have to be regulated by organic law. Legislative delegation must be granted by means of a basic law when its purpose is that of drawing up texts comprising various articles, or by an ordinary law when it is a matter of consolidating several legal texts into one.

When using this data, please cite us as follows: Chaqués Bonafont, L., Palau, A. and Baumgartner, F.R., 2015. Agenda Dynamics in Spain. London: Palgrave.

2.356 observations spanning the years 1980 to 2018.

2256 observations spanning the years 1980 to 2018
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Oral Questions

This database includes information about oral questions introduced by parliamentary groups in plenary meetings, and parliamentary committee meetings. According to the Congress’ Standing Orders (articles 185-190), oral questions are presented at a fixed question time on a regular basis (generally on Wednesdays). Individual MPs, not parliamentary groups, have the authority to ask parliamentary questions. However, in practice, the strong party discipline that characterizes the Spanish political system means that the parties control the process.MPs hand in their questions in advance so that the executive has time to prepare a response. When question time comes the MP asks the question and a member of the executive branch (the Prime Minister, a Minister, or a Secretary of State) responds, both orally. The rules governing question time have been significantly changed over time (for a detailed explanation see Chaqués, Palau and Baumgartner 2015).

When using this data, please cite us as follows: Chaqués Bonafont, L., Palau, A. and Baumgartner, F.R., 2015. Agenda Dynamics in Spain. London: Palgrave 43.175 observations spanning the years 1977 to 2018

43175 observations spanning the years 1977 to 2018
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Parliamentary Bills

This database includes information about Parliamentary Bills. Parliamentary Bills can be introduced by at least 14 MPs, 25 Senators, by a parliamentary group with the signature of the speaker, by the Legislative Assemblies of Regional Authorities (Comunidades Autónomas) or by popular initiative following a quite restrictive procedure that requires 500,000 signatures of support (according to article 87 of the Spanish Constitution, articles 124-129 of the Congress’ Standing Orders and Organic Law 3/1984). Parliamentary bills, contrary to executive bills, have to pass a taking into consideration debate and a formal voting in the Chamber (with the exception of those coming from the Senate) so that only those having a wide support have the possibility to enter the legislative process. Parliamentary bills cannot be related to budget issues neither involve credit increase or income reduction. Those coming from popular initiative cannot be related to issues reserved to organic law, taxes, international affairs neither prerogative of mercy.

When using this data, please cite us as follows: Chaqués Bonafont, L., Palau, A. and Baumgartner, F.R., 2015. Agenda Dynamics in Spain. London: Palgrave.

2.390 observations spanning the years 1982 to 2018.

2390 observations spanning the years 1982 to 2017
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Prime Minister & Executive

Executive Bills

This database includes information about bills initiated by the executive. Bills submitted by the executive shall have an explanatory memorandum and the necessary supporting information so as to make possible a decision on them (article 109 of the Congress’ Standing Orders). The Bureau of Congress is responsible for publishing the bill and for setting a date for the opening of the period during which amendments may be proposed and refer the bill to the appropriate committee.

When using this data, please cite us as follows: Chaqués Bonafont, L., Palau, A. and Baumgartner, F.R., 2015. Agenda Dynamics in Spain. London: Palgrave.

1.946 observations spanning the years 1982 to 2018.

1945 observations spanning the years 1977 to 2018
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Prime Minister Speeches

This database includes information about Prime Minister Speeches (investiture speeches (Discurso de Investidura) and state of the nation debates (Debate sobre Política General en torno al Estado de la Nación). In the investiture speech the candidate to the presidency of the Spanish government presents his program in order to seek the confidence of the Parliament providing important information about the policy priorities of the government for the next legislature. As defined in article 99 of the Spanish Constitution, the proposed candidate (designated by the King after consultation with the representatives designated by parliamentary group with representation in the Spanish Parliament) has to submit to the Parliament the political program of the Government he intends to form. In the state of the nation debate, that takes place annually (with the exception of election years), the Prime Minister informs the Parliament about his future policy priorities as well as about the evolution and implementation of the electoral program, informing about variations in the content of the governmental agenda since the beginning of the term. The Prime Minister speeches were coded at the quasi sentence level. A quasi-sentence is a unit of analysis that contains a single message or statement so that a natural sentence can contain one or more quasi-sentences.

When using this data, please cite us as follows: Chaqués Bonafont, L., Palau, A. and Baumgartner, F.R., 2015. Agenda Dynamics in Spain. London: Palgrave.

12171 observations spanning the years 1982 to 2016.

12171 observations spanning the years 1982 to 2015
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Political Parties

Party Manifestos

This database includes information about the party manifestos of the governing party and the main party in opposition. Party manifestos were coded at the quasi sentence level. A quasi-sentence is a unit of analysis that contains a single message or statement so that a natural sentence can contain one or more quasi-sentences.

When using this data, please cite us as follows: Chaqués Bonafont, L., Palau, A. and Baumgartner, F.R., 2015. Agenda Dynamics in Spain. London: Palgrave.

16280 observations spanning the years 1982 to 2008
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Research

Agenda Dynamics in Spain

Spanish politics has evolved from a consensual democracy with a focus on consolidating democratic rule to one where political parties increasingly polarize around ideologically rigid positions of Left and Right. No government seems able to resolve fundamental social conflicts ... Read more

Staff

Laura Chaqués-Bonafont

Title: Professor of Political Science
Institution(s): University of Barcelona and IBEI

Laura Chaqués Bonafont is Professor of Political Science at the University of Barcelona, and research fellow at the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI). She is leading the research group “Quality of Democracy” (www.Q-dem.com) aimed to analyze the interrelation between the governmental, parliamentarian and traditional and social media agendas across time, issues, countries and levels of government in Spain in a comparative perspective. The project establishes a link between policy dynamics research and other areas of concern within political science, mainly political representation and the quality of democracy in multilevel systems of governance. It also provides new tools for the development of quantitative measurement of policy dynamics. She is the author of different books like Agenda Dynamics in Spain (Palgrave 2015 with Frank Baumgartner and A. Palau) or Redes de Políticas Públicas (2004) among others. Her work also appears in academic journals like Comparative Political Studies, The British Journal of Political Science, West European Politics, Political Communication, or the Journal of Public Policy among others. At present her main research interests are the analysis of agenda dynamics in a comparative perspective paying especial attention to the role of gender differences, and the social media, and interest groups mobilization in multilevel systems of governance. To do that, she collaborates actively with the comparative agendas project (www.comparativeagendas.net), aimed to provide new tools for the quantitative analysis of agenda dynamics across time, countries, policy issues and levels of governance, and the Comparative interest group survey (www.cigsurvey.eu). In 2014 she won the ICREA prize.

Anna M. Palau

Title: Associated Professor
Institution(s): University of Barcelona

Anna M. Palau is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Constitutional Law and Political Science at the University of Barcelona. She finished her post-graduate studies at the University of Essex (UK) where she got an MA in Politics (with distinction) and received her PhD from the University of Barcelona. She has been research student at the University of Washington (USA) and Sciences Po (Bordeaux), and has participated in different research projects financed by national and European institutions. She has mainly done work in the analysis of policy dynamics, particularly in the food safety sector, although her research interests include more broadly the study of agenda setting and the role of mass media as political actor. At present, the analysis of the European Union as agenda setter and its relationship with other levels of government is one of her main research interests. Her research has been published in Comparative Political Studies, West European Politics, Journal of Public Policy and Journal of Legislative Studies among others. (apalau@ub.edu).

Camila Cristancho

Investigador post-doctoral Juan de la Cierva en el grupo Calidad de la Democracia (https://q-dem.com/) y miembro del grupo de investigación Democracia, Elecciones y Ciudadanía.Su investigación se centra en actitudes y comportamiento político con énfasis en la protesta. Su trabajo se basa en métodos de ciencia social computacional, experimentos y análisis estadístico de datos de encuesta.Su investigación actual se centra en actitudes hacia las organizaciones sociales en perspectiva comparada, en el potencial de la protesta sobre la igualdad política y en las emociones en la política contenciosa. Para ello utiliza técnicas de big data con datos de prensa, medios sociales y rastros digitales para el estudio de la protesta.Adicionalmente trabaja en técnicas de inteligencia artificial, las cuales han sido aplicadas en la identificación de eventos de protesta, de casos de corrupción local en la prensa y de emociones en la política.Recibió su título de doctor en Ciencias Políticas por la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (2014) y es licenciado en Ingeniería por la Universidad de los Andes (1998).Es miembro de redes académicas como el Comparative Interest Group Survey , Text Mining of Political and Legal Texts (POLTEXT) y Polarized Democracies in Comparative Perspective, y el ECPR Standing Group on Political Methodology .Ha liderado el trabajo de campo de proyectos europeos en temas de encuestas a organizaciones políticas, diseño e implementación de experimentos de laboratorio y encuesta, investigación basada en contenidos de prensa y encuestas a manifestantes en la calle. Ha sido responsable de la producción, recolección, gestión y análisis de datos de redes sociales, huellas digitales, contenidos de prensa, encuestas y datos espaciales.

Luz M. Muñoz Márquez

Title: Lecturer
Institution(s): University of Barcelona

Luz Muñoz Marquez is a post-doctoral researcher of the Spanish Policy Agendas Project. She finished her PhD in Political Science at University of Barcelona (2012). Her bachelor is in International Relations (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, with honors). She has been visiting researcher at the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology of the University of Newcastle (2013), Faculty of Law at the Universidad Iberoamericana (2013) and the Center for American Politics and Public Policy, University of Washington (2009). Her teaching activities include political science, public policy, collective action and interest group politics at the University of Barcelona. Her current research focuses on interest groups politics, with special interest on NGOs and advocacy groups. Other topics are agenda setting and government-opposition dynamics. (luzmunozma@ub.edu).

Leire Rincon

Title: PhD candidate
Institution(s): University of Barcelona

Leire Rincón is a research assistant of the Spanish Policy Agendas Project since October 2015. She holds a BSc in Politics and International Relations from the University of Bath (UK). Her bachelor dissertation engaged with Colin Crouch’s theory of Post-Democracy, examining in what ways Post-democratic conditions are present in Spain and analysing the role of the M15 movement in tackling such conditions. Currently, Leire is studying a MA in Political Analysis and Institutional Advising at the University of Barcelona (UB) (leiremaria@ub.edu).

Ferran Davesa

Title: PhD candidate
Institution(s): Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)

Ferran Davesa is a doctoral researcher at the Institute for European Studies (IES) / Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) from October 2013. His doctoral thesis analyses the impact of Internet-based participatory governance on EU's democratic deficit with a special focus on EU youth policy. Davesa is part of the joint research programme "Evaluating Democratic Governance in Europe" (EDGE). From 2008 to 2013, Davesa was a research assistant at the Spanish Policy Agendas Project (SPAP). Davesa holds an MA in International Relations from Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI) and a BA in Political Science from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). Recently, his academic research has focused on the foundations of good governance as regards corruption perception, collective action and political communication. http://www.ies.be/users/ferran-davesa

Andreu Casas

Title: PhD candidate
Institution(s): University of Washington

Andreu Casas is a graduate student in the Department of Political Scienceat the University of Washington. He is also a La Caixa Fellow and a research fellow at the Center for American Politics and Public Policy. His research interests are political participation and representation, with special focus on the use of text and other novel data sources to study legislative politics and electoral systems. Prior to starting graduate school, he received a B.A. in political science from the University of Barcelona and he worked as a research assistant of the Spanish Policy Agendas Project.

Explore Policy Trends

Click to explore policy trends with Spain pre-selected. The Trends tool allows for policy comparisons across governing institutions and countries.

The Quality of Democracy Research Group (www.Q-Dem.com) is aimed to analyze policy dynamics in Spain from transition to democracy to present in a comparative perspective. This means to explore the interrelation between the governmental, parliamentarian and media agendas across time, issues, countries and levels of government. The project establishes a link between policy dynamics research and other areas of concern within political science, mainly media studies, political representation and the quality of democracy in a multilevel system of government. It also provides a new tool for the development of quantitative measurement of policy dynamics. For the last years, we have created comprehensive and far-reaching datasets, about the Spanish political and media agenda following the methodology of the comparative agendas project.

For more information about our research projects please go to www.q-dem.com.

Principal Investigator: Laura Chaqués-Bonafont
Location: University of Barcelona
Email: laurachaques@ub.edu
Downloadable Data Series: 8
Time Span: 1977-2018
Total Observations: 185,405

Sponsoring Institutions

Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats

Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR)

Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación

European Science Foundation

Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia

Spanish Policy Agendas

Featured Research:

Agenda Dynamics in Spain

Spanish politics has evolved from a consensual democracy with a focus on consolidating democratic rule to one where political parties increasingly polarize around ideologically rigid positions of Left and Right. No government seems able to resolve fundamental social conflicts relating to economic growth, relations with the regions, the EU, and the Church. Members of Parliament are regularly sidelined compared to the Prime Minister, even as the regional governments and ... Read more