On 17 February 2015, ResponsiveGov Principal Investigator Laura Morales gave her professorial inaugural lecture at the University of Leicester. The lecture was entitled ‘Governmental Responsiveness to Public Demands between Elections: A Research Agenda‘
The Lecture presented the research agenda of ResponsiveGov as a whole and some preliminary findings from a comparison of two different policy-making situations ¾ nuclear energy policy after the Fukushima disaster and the policy making process that aimed at passing legislation regulating internet piracy ¾ in around 20 Western democracies. In the case of these two policy areas, the industry lobbies (i.e., nuclear energy production companies, cultural industry, etc.) and the collective action actors (i.e., environmentalists, internet-users, etc.) had opposing positions regarding the preferable direction of policy change and they often mobilized their positions in the public sphere. At the same time, the views of the general public were often known to the governments through the publication of opinion polls. The analysis of these two cases illustrates the different dynamics that are at play when democratic governments face multiple – and often opposing – demands from various sectors of the public.
The powerpoint of Prof. Morales’ presentation is available here