The aim of the Degrees of Democracy project is to explore relationships between public opinion and policy. This website provides an introduction to some past research in the field, and describes our ongoing work covering a number of different countries and policy issues. Our analyses are intended to provide insight into how institutional structures and policymaking processes affect some of the most fundamental elements of everyday politics - the quality of representation, the nature of policy change, the degree to which public policies reflect public preferences, and the extent to which preferences reflect changes in public policy.

Degrees of Democracy: Politics, Public Opinion and Policy has been published by Cambridge University Press.

Our most recent papers are Inequality in Policy Responsiveness?, forthcoming in a volume published by the Russell Sage Foundation, On the Limits to Inequality in Representation, in PS: Political Science and Politics, The Relationship between Public Opinion and Policy, in the Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, and Public Opinion and Policy, forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Canadian Politics.

Go directly to all project papers here.