The Politics of Agenda Setting

The Car and the Shaping of Public Policy

Nick Robinson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781138738034
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351732987
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This title was first published in 2000. A timely look at the politics of agenda setting in relation to the car, under both the Conservative and Labour governments since the late 1980s.

1 Introduction

This book argues that in the 1990s transport emerged as an issue of high political salience as the motor car increasingly came to be blamed for a combination of economic and environmental problems including rising congestion, noise, land-use impacts and a deterioration of air quality and traffic safety standards. As a result, the politics of the car has become a crucial issue confronting every government world-wide: arguably, it is tangential to all government decision making. Access to the car has had an important effect on issues such as hospital and education provision; planning decisions shaping the character of city centres throughout the world, and the development of out-of-town shopping (with equity implications for those without access to a car). Furthermore, the car is a key aspect of family spending with many citizens now almost totally dependent on the car. Such issues raise significant paradoxes for government: how can they gain the benefits of the car - the jobs, convenience, economic benefits etc - while ameliorating the costs - the environmental and planning effects and the costs in human life resulting from traffic accidents. Yet transport is an issue which has invited little comment from political scientists, remaining in the main the preserve of economists, geographers and town and country planners (Grant, 1995, pp. 4-5).

The primary rationale for this book is, therefore, to add to the contribution of political science to the study of the politics of transport. This is a particularly worthwhile exercise as the studies of UK transport policy which have been undertaken by political scientists thus far have tended to focus on discussion of the political conflict surrounding the preeminent power of the road lobby (see for example Hamer, 1987, Dudley, 1983 and Finer, 1958). Such studies have generally emphasised the static nature of transport policy in the post-war era, as the road lobby has combined skilful lobbying with luck 'to link its demands for resources to a more generalised belief that: (i) growth was desirable, and (ii) it was connected to the need for good infrastructure' (Dudley, 1983, p. 104). However, in the 1990s the transport issue gained higher political salience and the policy agenda increased in dynamism, thus posing a significant challenge to the position of the road lobby. This book aims to reflect both on the reasons for these changes and their implications.

The second key aim of this book is to apply intellectual innovations from the study of agenda setting to the transport case. The 1980s and 1990s have seen a number of theoretical innovations in this area: in particular, the work of Kingdon (1984 and 1995), Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (1993a) and Baumgartner and Jones (1991 and 1993) have all provided a much needed impetus to the study of agenda setting, helping to encourage a holistic conception of the policy process by political scientists. Such intellectual innovations increase the need to evaluate theoretical models of agenda setting through detailed case studies. It is the aim of this book to begin this task.

Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s the network approach was the dominant methodology adopted to study policy making by UK academics (see for example Atkinson and Coleman, 1992, Rhodes, 1990, Smith, 1993 and Wilks and Wright, 1987). Now, however, 'it is time to take stock: to see how much we have learned from this approach, to judge whether it can develop into a genuine and fruitful theory of the policy process or whether a more fundamental theory is required' (Dowding, 1995, p. 136). This book shares Dowding's aspiration; its third aim, therefore, is to provide a rigorous critical evaluation of the validity of the network approach in accounting for the increased political salience of the transport issue in the Major and Blair eras.

The final aim of this book is, more generally, to add to the literature on politics in the Major and Blair eras. As Bonefeld et al (1995) have argued, 'very little attention has been given to the administrations of John Major, and this despite the fact that he is one of the longest serving premiers in Britain this century' (p. 1). With its detailed study of the politics of transport in the Major era this book aims to go some way to correcting that shortfall, with the postscript bringing the reader up to date with developments since Major. Furthermore, Bonefeld et al point out that the studies of the Major era which have been undertaken tend to focus on a comparative evaluation of levels of continuity or change between the Thatcher and Major governments. The problem with such a focus is that 'concentration on the issue of continuity versus discontinuity tends to lead to the not too surprising conclusion that forces for continuity are powerful' (1995, p. 2). However, a consideration of transport policy in the 1990s reveals considerable discontinuities with the Thatcher period: this book therefore also challenges the conventional view that continuity between the Thatcher and post-Thatcher eras was considerable.

A Question of Questions

This book investigates three major research questions concerning the relationship between the politics of the car and the dynamics of political change. All are central to the evaluation of the competing models of agenda setting which is the aim of this book.

The first key question which this book addresses is that of providing an explanation for the increasing political salience of the transport issue in the Major era. Theoretical explanations of agenda setting can be classified as either actor centred, problem centred, external (or systems) based or non-decision making models, each focusing on different explanations of political change. In seeking a convincing explanation of developments concerning the car in the Major and Blair eras, this research therefore aims to draw on these models and to evaluate which, if any, of them can provide such an explanation.

Second, non-agenda setting models emphasise that governments have certain policy imperatives which they will always aim to protect through the exercise of control over the agenda setting process. Benson argues that the policy agenda is 'shaped by "deep rules" which operate to ensure that some demands are excluded from the decision-making process, and which limit the choices and behaviour of policy-makers' (Parsons, 1995, p. 149 summarising Benson, 1982, pp. 159-64. This process is described in detail in Chapter 2, which reviews the models of agenda setting). Consequently, controversial issues are managed from the agenda by government on behalf of policy insiders if they challenge these 'deep rules' (or if in policy terms they challenge the state's policy imperatives) (Benson, 1982, p. 162). Therefore, the second crucial question considered in this book is the extent to which transport policy in this period has been shaped by government policy imperatives. Is there any evidence that the policy agenda has excluded issues which are incompatible with these imperatives? To what extent have the challenges to the status quo in the Major era been sustained? Is there evidence of successful manipulation of the agenda by dominant interests, or has the Major era bequeathed to the Blair government a legacy of lasting volatility in the transport agenda?

Finally, this book examines the capacity of network theory to explain policy change in the Major and Blair eras, asking to what extent transport agenda setting in this period can best be explained by a focus on policy networks. Is political conflict over this issue best characterised by a division of actors into insiders and outsiders, based on their relationship to a core policy community? And assuming that the network approach provides a useful framework for the analysis of the politics of the car, how much operational autonomy does the core policy community have from central government? Accounts of the politics of the car, as I have argued, have tended to take a network approach, albeit with varying views of the extent to which networks have acted with autonomy. This book therefore aims to determine the validity of the network approach in this case, and to examine the level of autonomy possessed by the transport policy community, its impact on the agenda setting dynamic and the extent to which it has changed over time.

An Overview of the Book

The remainder of this book is divided into six substantive chapters, a conclusion and a postscript, which together provide an evaluation of the politics of the car in the Major and Blair eras. Chapter 2 provides the theoretical framework for the study of agenda setting in this period. It offers a critical review of the existing literature on agenda setting and argues that the models can be classified under one of four headings: actor centred; problem centred; external (or systems) models, and non-decision making models. Chapter 2 describes these models in general terms; the evidence for their ability to account for developments in the Major era and beyond is discussed throughout the remainder of the book.

Chapter 2 also reflects on the policy network approach and its relationship to agenda setting. In particular, it argues that while networks provide a useful method of classifying actors, the approach can lead to problems when attempting to explain agenda setting. In particular, a network approach has difficulty in incorporating external or systems events, tending to assume that agenda setting is explained only by changes in the balance of power between actors inside and outside the network. The network approach implies that policy communities have considerable autonomy from central government; however in the remainder of this book I argue that network autonomy in the UK is in fact highly conditional on the acquiescence of central government.

Events in the Major and Blair eras cannot be effectively evaluated without first placing them in their historical context. In Chapter 3 I argue that, on the surface, considerable parallels seem to exist between the conflicts over the transport issue of the 1970s and the 1990s. Both are periods of increasing concern over the environmental impact of motor vehicles; the trunk roads programme was the subject of increasing conflict as the opponents of roads launched a number of protests which captured the attention of the media; exogenous events provided the government with a justification for cuts to the road budget, and a broad-based 'review of policy' was undertaken, which ultimately served to stall the agenda. The increased salience of the transport issue in the 1970s appeared to pave the way for the reallocation of resources from road building to public transport, but in hindsight the 1980s saw a return to a significant road building programme, together with an increased emphasis on market instruments and a reduction in state funding for public transport. Overall, Chapter 3 provides a warning that in the long term the outcomes of the agenda setting process can be highly unpredictable. It also provides an initial indication of the importance of government action to manage the agenda in protecting the road lobby from challenges to their pre-eminent position.

The substantive argument within the book is contained in Chapters 4-7, which adopt themes from the agenda setting models discussed in Chapter 2 in order to explain, and examine the effect of, the increased political salience of the transport issue in the Major era. First, in Chapter 4, I adopt ideas from problem centred accounts of agenda setting and argue that during the Major period transport increasingly came to be seen as a policy problem. In the last ten to fifteen years the problems associated with road transport such as congestion and vehicle related air pollution have become more serious. In addition, knowledge about the environmental effects of road transport has increased immeasurably: this has helped to identify a series of new policy problems such as global warming.¹ These new policy problems have in turn created an impetus towards new solutions which the anti-roads groups have been able to exploit. As Kingdon (1995) argues, problems tend to develop as a result of events, independently of the actions of groups. This has proven to be true in the transport case.

Of all of these problems I argue that the most significant has been congestion. In particular, I argue that the Thatcher government created a significant policy problem for its successor through the creation of what Dunleavy has termed a 'policy disaster' (1995). In 1989, the government produced the National Road Traffic Forecasts (DTp 1989a) which predicted that traffic levels would grow by between 83% and 142% by the year 2025. Thus government was itself instrumental in defining the serious nature of the problem of congestion. In response to these figures, the government then launched an expanded roads programme, Roads for Prosperity (Cm 693), presenting it as the solution to the problem. However, it immediately became clear that the scale of the problem outlined in the government's traffic projections was such that it could not be solved by the proposed programme. The anti-roads groups benefited from this disparity, being able to argue that it was virtually impossible for any road programme to accommodate the government's own projections for road traffic growth. Thus the government's own forecasts, and its proposed solution, unwittingly aided the opposition of the anti-roads groups.

Chapter 4 concludes that although increasing concern with congestion and pollution has led to a conceptualisation of transport as a policy problem, this has had only a mixed impact on the transport agenda as central government has successfully promoted a number of policies designed to reduce the environmental impact of motor vehicles and thus lower the salience of the transport issue. Government intervention has depoliticised the transport agenda in relation to issues such as vehicle emissions in the short term. However, this has left the fundamental transport 'problem' of reconciling twentieth century lifestyle and mobility choices with ecological sustainability unresolved, as the Major government avoided the true implications of conflict over policy in this area.

Chapter 5 adopts themes from the actor centred approach to agenda setting in order to focus on changes in the relationship between insider and outsider groups and their effect on the agenda setting process. In the literature on the politics of the car the change in this relationship is viewed as being of primary significance: actor centred models argue that the anti-roads groups became increasingly adept at gaining access to government, while the road lobby was increasingly fragmented as divisions emerged between the construction and manufacturing sectors and the road users. In this chapter the impact of these changes is viewed more narrowly, for a number of reasons. First, the government itself has policy imperatives based on the realisation of an efficient network of trunk roads which it believes is central to the promotion of economic efficiency and personal mobility. Second, the fragmentation of the road lobby in the Major era has been overstated; this lobby in fact remains united around a shared belief that mobility is essential for economic development. Actor centred accounts have, I argue, confused the development of dialogue between 'moderate elements' of the road lobby and anti-roads groups for changes in the core beliefs of these groups. Finally, I argue that actor centred accounts of agenda setting have misrepresented the importance of the alternative policy arenas which were available to the anti-roads groups in the Major period. In particular, I examine the significance of the media's relationship to the direct action protests, arguing that while the media has changed the policy image of transport from that of a dull technical issue to a highly emotive one, it has done so at the cost of marginalising both the more moderate anti-roads groups (such as Transport 2000) and the solutions which they have to offer. I also examine the impact of Parliamentary politics in the Major era, considering the Parliamentary arena as a potential site for change. The Major government's small majority after 1992 enabled MPs, particularly from the South East of England, to oppose road schemes which affected their constituencies, forcing the cancellation of individual road schemes and reductions to the road programme generally. However, I argue that this opposition was largely pragmatic, being without consequence for the ideology of the Major government, which continued investment in the road programme in the Midlands and Northern England where opposition was minimal.

Neither of these national arenas, therefore, offered the kind of alternative sites for change to the anti-roads groups which are envisaged by actor centred models of agenda setting. In Chapters 6 and 7 I go on to examine two alternative arenas with the potential to exert significant exogenous influence on national decision making: the European Union (EU) and local government. In the policy making literature local government and the EU are frequently seen as alternative arenas which groups will attempt to infiltrate in order to exert pressure on national policy making. This book evaluates the extent to which this is the case.

In Chapter 6, I argue that the EU has become increasingly important as an alternative venue for policy making. EU initiatives to strengthen the Community's regulatory framework were supported by the Major government because their aims of facilitating the development of the single market programme and promoting technical solutions to the transport problem accorded with that government's own initiatives. However, the EU has had less success in its efforts to develop an activist environmental or infrastructure policy. Proposals to develop policy in the domain of 'high politics' have failed due to the opposition of a number of national governments (including the UK) and a lack of fiscal resources.

Overall, the imbalance between the development of regulatory policy and activist policy in the EU has served to further limit the environmental movement's challenge to the road programme in the UK. The EU's regulatory strategy works to reduce the political salience of the transport problem by creating a technical framework for its solution: in consequence issues of sustainability, land-use and mobility are largely removed from the political agenda. And further, the EU's plans to develop a strategic network of European roads has been used by national governments to try to undermine the opposition of national road protests. However, this aspect of the government's political strategy has seriously backfired, resulting in a Policy disaster similar to that surrounding the 1989 Roads for Prosperity programme.

In turn, Chapter 7 examines the difficulties experienced by local government in its attempts to overcome the dominance of central government over the agenda setting process. The increased political salience of the transport issue has led central government to acknowledge that responsibilities for traffic restraint, the provision of alternatives to the car and monitoring air quality are best placed on local government, but there has been no creation of an accompanying funding mechanism enabling it to act on these responsibilities. Thus local authorities have become the victims of an agenda driven by the priorities of the centre, in which they are confronted with political pressure for action but remain deprived of the resources to enable this.

In Chapter 8, which concludes this main part of the book, I return to the questions which provided the initial rationale for this investigation: namely to examine competing models...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Agenda Setting: A Review of the Literature
• 3 History: From the Un-Politics to the New Politics of Transport
• 4 Problem Centred Models of Agenda Setting
• 5 Actor Centred Models of Agenda Setting
• 6 The European Union and National Transport Policy
• 7 Local Authorities and the Transport Agenda Under Major: The Qualified Rise of Power Dependency in Central-Local Relations
• 8 Conclusion
• 9 Postscript: New Labour and the Politics of Transport
• Bibliography