The legislative representation of public opinion priorities. A study of Italian parties, governments, and public opinion policy agendas.

The objective of this dissertation is to offer a study of dynamic agenda representation for the Italian case that looks at how parties and governments structure their policy agendas. In doing so, it attempts to address the academic gap affecting studies of Italian policy representation that put in relation public opinion priorities with the policy agenda of decision-makers. The theoretical framework argues that political actors have an incentive to represent not only the policy preferences of citizens but also their priorities. One of the available ways to do so consists in prioritising legislation covering policy areas deemed important by citizens. The research also investigates parallel issues: first, it provides an analysis of the dynamics of policy agendas of parties and governments from the 10th to the 16th legislature; secondly, it evaluates political equality in policy representation, addressing whether different Italian publics do exist and if some sub-groups attracts more attention from policy-makers. The analyses reveal that ideology and public opinion are associated with changes in the structure of legislative agendas of parties and governments. In the years investigated a persistent link between the agenda of the public and the prioritisation of legislation by Italian MPs, parties, and government emerged.