Two subthemes can be identified within this research agenda. One track offers a new approach to the classic question about the importance of elections and changes in the partisan composition of governments as drivers of policy and agenda changes. This perspective challenges the “politics matter” perspective, which has generally been restricted to looking for election and partisan effects along the left-right dimension. Approaching the question at the issue level, as is characteristic of PET studies, not only offers a fresh and more detailed look at the election-based explanations of change but
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