Speaking in unison? Explaining the role of agenda-setter constellations in the ECB policy agenda using a network-based approach

Abstract

Policy agendas are a well-studied institutional level phenomenon that capture the set of policy issues that an institution pays attention to over time. They are emergent in nature in that individual behaviour shapes institutionallevel outcomes when policy makers allocate attention to policy issues. To examine the link between individual-level actions and system-level outcomes we introduce the concept of the agenda-setting constellation, defined as a group of policy makers paying attention to a set of policy issues. Taking the European Central Bank as a case study, and using a combination of text-analysis and networks-analysis techniques, we demonstrate how these meso-level structures shape the evolving policy agenda. We then examine the roles of personal experience, institutional constraints, and policy context in driving agenda-setter constellation membership. Our results show the value of studying policy agendas as networked processes and the key role that agenda-setter constellations play in driving policy agenda dynamics. *Connected Politics Lab, School of Politics & International Relations, University College Dublin, Ireland. (james.cross@ucd.ie) Corresponding author. †Insight Centre for Data Analytics & School of Computer Science, University College Dublin, Ireland. (derek.greene@ucd.ie) ‡Digital Democracy Lab, University of Zurich, Switzerland. (umansky@ipz.uzh.ch) §European Stability Mechanism, Luxembourg. (s.calo@esm.europa.eu) The views expressed in this paper are personal and do not represent the views of the European Stability Mechanism.