Research on the influence of public opinion on public policy is still underdeveloped. Comparative studies usually focus on partisan influence, economic forces, institutions and related macro-level explanatory variables. However, literature in the field of policy responsiveness suggests that there is a link between mass opinion and policymaking. This paper concentrates on values and religious beliefs as central elements of mass public opinion. It investigates the extent to which they have an impact on public policy. Aggregate opinion is conceived as an input into national policymaking in its own right. We argue that citizens’ preferences may not be sufficiently captured by partisan composition of government, which is a common independent variable in comparative studies. A particular policy might for example match the values of the public without reflecting the ideological core of party positions. Therefore, the paper draws attention to the contribution of survey research to comparative public policy. Empirically, the paper will focus on the explanation of morality policies in different domains such as abortion or same-sex marriage in Western democracies. These issues are supposed to be salient, contested and of high relevance to the public; citizens are motivated to make their preferences known to political actors. Thus, moral values and religious beliefs are considered to be an important determinant of morality policy. In the paper, the explanatory power of moral values and religious beliefs will be examined controlling for conventional predictors, namely partisan composition of government and religious denomination.
