Searching for 'Tartan' Policy Bandwagons: Mapping the Mobilisation of Organised Interests in Public Policy
This paper reports on analysis of Scottish government consultations. The data set spans more than two decades (1982-2007) covering almost 1700 discrete public consultations (issues) and includes more than 18,000 different organized actors engaging in more than 130,000 separate ?influence events?. The broad aim of the research is to empirically map the incidence and mobilisation of organised interests (including those of citizen, charity and voluntary service organisations) in Scotland across these public policy issues. This paper asks two related questions. Firstly, how many issues are bandwagons and how many quiet policy corners? Are there tartan policy bandwagons? Secondly, what types of actors mobilise and in what proportions? This paper was prepared for delivery at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association in August 2008 and is part of 'The mobilisation of organised interests in Scotland' project at The Robert Gordon University which commenced in 2006.
