Policy Representation in the UK, 1945-2015

This paper will examine the interaction between the policy mood and government policy in the United Kingdom between 1945 and 2015 using time series methods following the Macro Polity (Erikson et. al, 2002). It will examine the relationship between the effect of both economic conditions and policy (as measured by spending and analysis of textual measures of policy included the Queens speech, budget speech and party leaders’ speech to their party conferences) and the policy mood in order to assess the degree of public responsiveness. It will also examine the impact of the policy mood on policy on those measures of public policy. The research will update and draw upon published research (Bartle et al., 2011).The textual measures of policy are estimate using both MARPOR coding framework and the Benoit-Laver word-score programmes. The policy mood is estimated using the dyads-ratio algorithm (Stimsons, 1999) Bibliography Bartle, John; Sebastian Dellepiane-Avalleneda and James A. Stimson, ‘The moving centre: preferences for government activity in Britain, 1950-2005’, British Journal of Political Science, 41 (2011), 259-85. Erikson, Robert; Michael McKuen and James Stimson, The Macro Polity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Stimson, James A., Public Opinion in America: Moods, cycles and Swings (Boulder, CA: Westview Press, 1999).