What are the origins of policy agendas and what determines agenda setting? The one robust theory in the literature associates different agendas with different moments in the evolution of the broader party system namely mass, catch-all and most recently cartel patterns. This article explores Australian evidence for this thesis. It also argues the cartel moment has recently mutated. Agenda setting is now circumscribed by a mismatch between the needs of policy making and the political incentive structure. The media have become primary tissue connecting political elites to their publics. But this traps the system in short term, primarily populist stances. Systemic capacities to mediate agenda setting have thus been corrupted.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	political parties, public policy, agenda setting, policy agendas
Research Division:	Human Society
Research Group:	Political science
Research Field:	Australian government and politics
Objective Division:	Law, Politics and Community Services
Objective Group:	Government and politics
Objective Field:	Political systems
UTAS Author:	Marsh, I (Professor Ian Marsh)
ID Code:	90968
Year Published:	2013
Web of Science® Times Cited:	1
Deposited By:	Australian Innovation Research Centre
Deposited On:	2014-05-05
Last Modified:	2017-11-15
Downloads:	0