To what extent are government parties’ responsive to voters before and after elections? And what explains their responsiveness at both times? Past research mostly focused either on agenda-setting or decision-making venues, and has not yet simultaneously addressed both stages. For that reason we know little about the correspondence between parties' responsiveness in campaign agendas and decision-making during the legislative sessions. Seeking to contribute to fill this gap, we first generally argue that parties are more responsive to public's policy priorities during agenda-setting than decision-making stage. We also argue that responsiveness is mediated by government characteristics, with left-wing and minority governments being more responsive than right-wing and majoritarian. The research focuses on the Portuguese case, and uses data from the Eurobarometer and European Election Studies, as well as party manifestos between 1995 and 2015. Findings generally support our expectations having important implications for the understanding of mandate-responsiveness and the dynamics of opinion-policy linkage.
