E J Fagan
Biographic Data
| ID | 4383897 |
|---|---|
| NAME | E J Fagan |
| GIVEN NAMES | E J |
| FAMILY NAME | Fagan |
| SIGNATURE | FAGAN E J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Illinois Chicago |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4432-8000 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 102 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The dynamics of issue attention in policy process scholarship
This article examines the policy topics and theoretical debates found in Policy Studies Journal (PSJ) articles over the last three decades. PSJ is the premier journal for scholars studying policy processes, seeking to create generalizable theories across the spectrum of specific policy areas. To examine trends in PSJ over time, we collected 1314 abstracts from PSJ articles. We identified abstracts that mention major theories of the policy process…
Lobbying responsiveness to congressional policy agendas
We examine the strategic use of contract and in‐house lobbyists by interest groups in response to shifting policy agendas. The role that lobbyists play in the policy process changes based on the policy agenda. Most of the time, subsystems manage small changes to public policy, rewarding actors with long‐term relationships. Organizations with a deep interest in the issue area maintain permanent lobbying presences, earning some degree of privilege …
Partisan Asymmetries in Earmark Representation
This paper examines how Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives vary in their earmarking behavior. After a 10-year moratorium, Congress enabling members to request small grants for community programs in their districts in the 2021 appropriations process. As part of a reform designed to limit corruption and wasteful spending, members had to submit written justifications for the grants, which provides insight into how members…
Political institutions, punctuated equilibrium theory, and policy disasters
This paper develops a theory of the relationship between policy disasters and political institutions. Policy disasters, defined as avoidable, unintended extreme negative policy outcomes, are important political, and historical events above that receive relatively little attention from political scientists and scholars of public policy. Using the predictions of punctuated equilibrium theory, I argue that systems with higher error accumulation will…
Black, immigrant, or woman? The implicit influence of Kamala Harris’ vice presidential nomination on support for Biden in 2020
Objective In 2020, for the first time, a VP candidate was a black woman of immigrant parentage. This article asks whether Kamala Harris’ vice presidential candidacy may have motivated some white voters and especially those scoring high on racial resentment, anti‐immigrant attitudes, or sexism to vote for Trump instead of Biden. Methods We conducted an online priming experiment with non‐Hispanic white voters in August 2020, shortly after Harris wa…
Problem Solving and the Demand for Expert Information in Congress
This article examines the relationship between demand for expert information from members of the US Congress and increased issue salience in the public. As problems become salient, policymakers should seek out expert information to define problems and identify effective policy solutions to address those problems. Previous work on elite mass public representation and government problem solving has relied on public actions by elected officials to e…
The Power of the Party: Conflict Expansion and the Agenda Diversity of Interest Groups
To what extent do political parties have an effect on the policy-related activity of interest groups? Drawing from ideas of conflict expansion and the structure of extended party networks, we argue that political parties are able to pull interest groups into more policy conflicts than they otherwise would be involved in. We posit that parties are able to draw interest groups to be active outside of established issue niches. We suggest that severa…
Issue ownership and the priorities of party elites in the United States, 2004–2016
Parties in government prioritize issues that voters trust them to handle more than other parties. However, scholars disagree about whether this relationship exists because parties strategically prioritize issues that voters trust them to handle or whether voters first observe core party priorities while in government and then trust them to handle those issues. This article disentangles these two explanations, arguing that issue ownership is cause…
Using the Comparative Agendas Project to examine interest group behavior
Policy Change in Brazil: New Challenges for Policy Analysis in Latin America
From the emergence of punctuated equilibrium theory in the United States in the mid‐1990s to the creation of the Comparative Agendas Project, scholars have predicted that punctuated equilibrium theory and related agenda‐setting theories can be applied across all systems. Yet most of the literature to date has focused on Western countries. The Brazilian Agendas Project has now made data available on a wide range of policy inputs and outputs, the f…
Marching Orders? U.S. Party Platforms and Legislative Agenda Setting 1948–2014
What is the relationship between the priorities expressed in party platforms before an election and the subsequent legislative agenda? The agenda setting literature often deemphasizes the role of political parties in agenda setting, instead focusing on the importance of problems bubbling up to the surface and demanding attention from policymakers. However, parties will often express different issue priorities during elections, and compete based o…
Representative systems and policy punctuations
This article examines how the characteristics of political institutions impact the extensiveness of budget punctuations. We develop a theory based on an adaptive systems framework from policy process studies of budgeting, and posit that institutional factors that impede democratic responsiveness lead to inefficiencies that cause policy changes to become more punctuated. Based on previous research on policy responsiveness, we hypothesize that nati…
Representative systems and policy punctuations
This article examines how the characteristics of political institutions impact the extensiveness of budget punctuations. We develop a theory based on an adaptive systems framework from policy process studies of budgeting, and posit that institutional factors that impede democratic responsiveness lead to inefficiencies that cause policy changes to become more punctuated. Based on previous research on policy responsiveness, we hypothesize that nati…
Issue ownership and the priorities of party elites in the United States, 2004–2016
Parties in government prioritize issues that voters trust them to handle more than other parties. However, scholars disagree about whether this relationship exists because parties strategically prioritize issues that voters trust them to handle or whether voters first observe core party priorities while in government and then trust them to handle those issues. This article disentangles these two explanations, arguing that issue ownership is cause…
Problem Solving and the Demand for Expert Information in Congress
This article examines the relationship between demand for expert information from members of the US Congress and increased issue salience in the public. As problems become salient, policymakers should seek out expert information to define problems and identify effective policy solutions to address those problems. Previous work on elite mass public representation and government problem solving has relied on public actions by elected officials to e…
Political institutions, punctuated equilibrium theory, and policy disasters
This paper develops a theory of the relationship between policy disasters and political institutions. Policy disasters, defined as avoidable, unintended extreme negative policy outcomes, are important political, and historical events above that receive relatively little attention from political scientists and scholars of public policy. Using the predictions of punctuated equilibrium theory, I argue that systems with higher error accumulation will…
The Power of the Party: Conflict Expansion and the Agenda Diversity of Interest Groups
To what extent do political parties have an effect on the policy-related activity of interest groups? Drawing from ideas of conflict expansion and the structure of extended party networks, we argue that political parties are able to pull interest groups into more policy conflicts than they otherwise would be involved in. We posit that parties are able to draw interest groups to be active outside of established issue niches. We suggest that severa…
Marching Orders? U.S. Party Platforms and Legislative Agenda Setting 1948–2014
What is the relationship between the priorities expressed in party platforms before an election and the subsequent legislative agenda? The agenda setting literature often deemphasizes the role of political parties in agenda setting, instead focusing on the importance of problems bubbling up to the surface and demanding attention from policymakers. However, parties will often express different issue priorities during elections, and compete based o…
Partisan Asymmetries in Earmark Representation
This paper examines how Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives vary in their earmarking behavior. After a 10-year moratorium, Congress enabling members to request small grants for community programs in their districts in the 2021 appropriations process. As part of a reform designed to limit corruption and wasteful spending, members had to submit written justifications for the grants, which provides insight into how members…
Policy Change in Brazil: New Challenges for Policy Analysis in Latin America
From the emergence of punctuated equilibrium theory in the United States in the mid‐1990s to the creation of the Comparative Agendas Project, scholars have predicted that punctuated equilibrium theory and related agenda‐setting theories can be applied across all systems. Yet most of the literature to date has focused on Western countries. The Brazilian Agendas Project has now made data available on a wide range of policy inputs and outputs, the f…
The dynamics of issue attention in policy process scholarship
This article examines the policy topics and theoretical debates found in Policy Studies Journal (PSJ) articles over the last three decades. PSJ is the premier journal for scholars studying policy processes, seeking to create generalizable theories across the spectrum of specific policy areas. To examine trends in PSJ over time, we collected 1314 abstracts from PSJ articles. We identified abstracts that mention major theories of the policy process…
Lobbying responsiveness to congressional policy agendas
We examine the strategic use of contract and in‐house lobbyists by interest groups in response to shifting policy agendas. The role that lobbyists play in the policy process changes based on the policy agenda. Most of the time, subsystems manage small changes to public policy, rewarding actors with long‐term relationships. Organizations with a deep interest in the issue area maintain permanent lobbying presences, earning some degree of privilege …
Using the Comparative Agendas Project to examine interest group behavior
Black, immigrant, or woman? The implicit influence of Kamala Harris’ vice presidential nomination on support for Biden in 2020
Objective In 2020, for the first time, a VP candidate was a black woman of immigrant parentage. This article asks whether Kamala Harris’ vice presidential candidacy may have motivated some white voters and especially those scoring high on racial resentment, anti‐immigrant attitudes, or sexism to vote for Trump instead of Biden. Methods We conducted an online priming experiment with non‐Hispanic white voters in August 2020, shortly after Harris wa…
Representative systems and policy punctuations
This article examines how the characteristics of political institutions impact the extensiveness of budget punctuations. We develop a theory based on an adaptive systems framework from policy process studies of budgeting, and posit that institutional factors that impede democratic responsiveness lead to inefficiencies that cause policy changes to become more punctuated. Based on previous research on policy responsiveness, we hypothesize that nati…
Marching Orders? U.S. Party Platforms and Legislative Agenda Setting 1948–2014
What is the relationship between the priorities expressed in party platforms before an election and the subsequent legislative agenda? The agenda setting literature often deemphasizes the role of political parties in agenda setting, instead focusing on the importance of problems bubbling up to the surface and demanding attention from policymakers. However, parties will often express different issue priorities during elections, and compete based o…
Using the Comparative Agendas Project to examine interest group behavior
Policy Change in Brazil: New Challenges for Policy Analysis in Latin America
From the emergence of punctuated equilibrium theory in the United States in the mid‐1990s to the creation of the Comparative Agendas Project, scholars have predicted that punctuated equilibrium theory and related agenda‐setting theories can be applied across all systems. Yet most of the literature to date has focused on Western countries. The Brazilian Agendas Project has now made data available on a wide range of policy inputs and outputs, the f…
The Power of the Party: Conflict Expansion and the Agenda Diversity of Interest Groups
To what extent do political parties have an effect on the policy-related activity of interest groups? Drawing from ideas of conflict expansion and the structure of extended party networks, we argue that political parties are able to pull interest groups into more policy conflicts than they otherwise would be involved in. We posit that parties are able to draw interest groups to be active outside of established issue niches. We suggest that severa…
Issue ownership and the priorities of party elites in the United States, 2004–2016
Parties in government prioritize issues that voters trust them to handle more than other parties. However, scholars disagree about whether this relationship exists because parties strategically prioritize issues that voters trust them to handle or whether voters first observe core party priorities while in government and then trust them to handle those issues. This article disentangles these two explanations, arguing that issue ownership is cause…
Black, immigrant, or woman? The implicit influence of Kamala Harris’ vice presidential nomination on support for Biden in 2020
Objective In 2020, for the first time, a VP candidate was a black woman of immigrant parentage. This article asks whether Kamala Harris’ vice presidential candidacy may have motivated some white voters and especially those scoring high on racial resentment, anti‐immigrant attitudes, or sexism to vote for Trump instead of Biden. Methods We conducted an online priming experiment with non‐Hispanic white voters in August 2020, shortly after Harris wa…
Problem Solving and the Demand for Expert Information in Congress
This article examines the relationship between demand for expert information from members of the US Congress and increased issue salience in the public. As problems become salient, policymakers should seek out expert information to define problems and identify effective policy solutions to address those problems. Previous work on elite mass public representation and government problem solving has relied on public actions by elected officials to e…
Partisan Asymmetries in Earmark Representation
This paper examines how Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives vary in their earmarking behavior. After a 10-year moratorium, Congress enabling members to request small grants for community programs in their districts in the 2021 appropriations process. As part of a reform designed to limit corruption and wasteful spending, members had to submit written justifications for the grants, which provides insight into how members…
Political institutions, punctuated equilibrium theory, and policy disasters
This paper develops a theory of the relationship between policy disasters and political institutions. Policy disasters, defined as avoidable, unintended extreme negative policy outcomes, are important political, and historical events above that receive relatively little attention from political scientists and scholars of public policy. Using the predictions of punctuated equilibrium theory, I argue that systems with higher error accumulation will…
The dynamics of issue attention in policy process scholarship
This article examines the policy topics and theoretical debates found in Policy Studies Journal (PSJ) articles over the last three decades. PSJ is the premier journal for scholars studying policy processes, seeking to create generalizable theories across the spectrum of specific policy areas. To examine trends in PSJ over time, we collected 1314 abstracts from PSJ articles. We identified abstracts that mention major theories of the policy process…
Lobbying responsiveness to congressional policy agendas
We examine the strategic use of contract and in‐house lobbyists by interest groups in response to shifting policy agendas. The role that lobbyists play in the policy process changes based on the policy agenda. Most of the time, subsystems manage small changes to public policy, rewarding actors with long‐term relationships. Organizations with a deep interest in the issue area maintain permanent lobbying presences, earning some degree of privilege …
Law (12 works) · Political science (12 works) · Law (10 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies (8 works) · Public Administration (7 works) · Public Administration (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Policy Transfer and Learning (5 works)