Effects of the Core Functions of Government on the Diversity of Executive Agendas

TLDR

The distribution of attention across issues is fundamental to the political agenda and government outputs. This article proposes an issue‑based theory that core government functions—defense, international affairs, the economy, government operations, and the rule of law—are prioritized ahead of all other issues. The authors conduct a comparative analysis of executive agenda diversity across several European countries and the United States over the postwar period. The analysis shows that core functions constrain agenda diversity, with executives focusing most attention on a few issues when these functions dominate, while other issues receive more attention only when the agenda is more diverse, and that some issues are more equally represented than others.

Abstract

The distribution of attention across issues is of fundamental importance to the political agenda and outputs of government. This article presents an issue-based theory of the diversity of governing agendas where the core functions of government—defense, international affairs, the economy, government operations, and the rule of law—are prioritized ahead of all other issues. It undertakes comparative analysis of issue diversity of the executive agenda of several European countries and the United States over the postwar period. The results offer strong evidence of the limiting effect of core issues—the economy, government operations, defense, and international affairs—on agenda diversity. This suggests not only that some issues receive more attention than others but also that some issues are attended to only at times when the agenda is more diverse. When core functions of government are high on the agenda, executives pursue a less diverse agenda—focusing the majority of their attention on fewer issues. Some issues are more equal than others in executive agenda setting.