Tinette Schnatterer

Policymaking in times of crisis Governments consistently deal with crises, but some are larger than others, some are endogenously created, and some are exogenously imposed. This article introduces a Special Issue of the Journal i...

Our article is published within the special issue "Policymaking in Times of Crises" edited by Frank Baumgartner & Laura Chaqués Bonafont. Check it out: doi.org/10.1080/1350...

This new piece of research highlights once again that governments are not only consumers of public opinion data, but also active participants in its creation by commissioning their own quantitative or qualitative public opinion studies.

... incentives related to the salience of the issue can shift the focus of government polls to issues where they have less room for manoeuvre.

💡 Our results show that while motivations to ask questions about a particular issue are shaped by constraints (institutional, financial and political) on the government’s ability to act in this area,...

🗒️ In a new article in the @jeppjournal.bsky.social , @anjadurovic.bsky.social &myself analyse how the character of the policy domain to which an issue belongs affects its likelihood of being included in gov. polls.

Government polling in times of crises: when capacity meets incentives How do governments mobilise public opinion in times of crises? While recent research examines the factors that determine the intensity of government polling at different points in the electoral cyc...

How do governments mobilise public opinion in times of uncertainty? Do they gauche public opinion systematically across policy domains or unevenly depending on the issue ?🧵

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

... to issues where they have less room for manoeuvre.

(11/13)

Our results show that while motivations to ask questions about a particular issue are shaped by constraints (institutional, financial & political) on the government’s ability to act in this area, incentives related to the salience of the issue can shift the focus of government polls...

(10/13)

However, when redistributive issues become a major public concern, governments are more likely to survey public opinion about them despite the financial implications.

(9/13)

The third pattern encompasses financial and policy-related elements. Governments clearly prefer polling on regulatory policy issues (ie. setting standards & rules) rather than on redistributive issues that require significant government spending.

(8/13)

This changes when an issue becomes a major public concern. During crises or when specific topics dominate public debate, the federal government starts polling much more about issues outside their direct control, particularly those involving shared responsibilities with state governments.

(7/13)

First, governments prefer to ask questions about issues they actually control. The German federal government is much more likely to commission surveys on topics under their jurisdiction rather than issues handled primarily by state governments.

(6/13)

Our research reveals three important patterns in how governments decide what to poll about.

(5/13)

One year ago, we published an @ejprjournal article on the factors that determine the intensity of government polling at different points in the electoral cycle. This time, we focus on the more qualitative aspects of government polling (i.e. what kind of policy issues are selected & why).

(4/13)

We do so by presenting empirical evidence from Germany, mobilising an original database of all poll questions directly commissioned by the German federal government during the 18th and 19th legislative periods (2013-2021).

(3/13)

In a new article @jeppjournal, @AnDurovic &myself analyse how the character of the policy domain to which an issue belongs affects its likelihood of being included in gov. polls.

(2/13)

Hi! Does anyone have a recommendation for a latex template for an HDR (not cumulative, but book form), preferably one that is also suitable for doctoral theses???? Thanks in advance!

Un article avec @anjadurovic.bsky.social qui présent nos recherches actuelles (en français)

Angela Merkel : une popularité à toute épreuve… grâce aux enquêtes d'opinion ? L’examen de l’utilisation intensive des sondages par l’ex-chancelière allemande Angela Merkel est porteur de nombreux enseignements.

Une étude récente montre que la stabilité au pouvoir de l’ancienne chancelière allemande Angela Merkel est en partie liée à sa capacité d’adaptation à l’opinion publique, qui reposait sur une utilisation stratégique des enquêtes d’opinion.

Why governments want to learn about citizens’ preferences Democratic governments conduct extensive public opinion research, but we know little about how they use it. When and why do they seek to find out what the public thinks? Opening the black box of gover...

📘 Based on EJPR journal research on government polling in Germany, @tinesch.bsky.social and @anjadurovic.bsky.social explore when and why governments seek public opinion 📊. They discover that governments exploit polls in a highly strategic way.
bit.ly/4dORxc4

Our next papers (as part of ANR research project Cospo) will deal with the morequalitative aspect of government polling: the question as to which specific policy issues are selected by government polls, when and why? And will extend the research to a Franco-German comparison. (7/7)

German government’s varied polling throughout the electoral cycle suggests that it uses this tool in a strategic way, responding to different incentives. This underlines the importance of understanding governments as actors in, and not just consumers of, public opinion polls. (6/7)

Second, we find that survey questions often follow government priorities, but issue salience also matters. The balance shifts over the electoral cycle: after elections, governments focus on their policies, while closer to elections, they prioritize public concerns. (5/7)

A first important finding concerns the impact of issue ownership and the observation that the German government asks fewer questions on issues the CDU/CSU "owns". (4/7)

We study government polls as the DV, using an innovative design to analyze factors influencing polling intensity across the electoral cycle. We also explore whether poll topics align more with government priorities or public concerns. (3/7)

Why study government polls? f we consider that public opinion in its surveyed form, is a social construction, it becomes necessary to begin by focusing on governments’ polling activity. We thus consider governments as actors in production of public opinion not only consumers. (2/7)

When and why do governments want to learn about citizens’ preferences? In our new @EJPRjournal article @anjadurovic.bsky.social and I open the black box of government polling by exploring this question using new data from Germany (2013-2021) : https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12721
(1/7)

We study government polls as the DV, using an innovative design to analyze factors influencing polling intensity across the electoral cycle. We also explore whether poll topics align more with government priorities or public concerns. (3/8)

Why study government polls? If we consider that public opinion in its surveyed form, is a social construction, it becomes necessary to begin by focusing on governments’ polling activity. We thus consider governments as actors in production of public opinion not only consumers. (2/8)