Examines responsiveness and representation across a range of policy domains in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Stuart N. Soroka is associate professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of Political Science at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec. He is also Adjunct Professor and Director of the Canadian Opinion Research Archive at the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, and co-director of the Media Observatory at the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. He is the author of Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada (2002) and a number of articles in journals including the Journal of Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, the Canadian Journal of Political Science, and Comparative Political Studies.

Preface; 1. Public opinion and policy in representative democracy; 2. The thermostatic model; 3. Adding issues and institutions; 4. Public preferences and spending - a preliminary analysis; 5. Parameters of public responsiveness; 6. Public responsiveness explored; 7. Policy representation; 8. Homogeneity and heterogeneity in public and policy responsiveness; 9. Responsiveness and representation.