Agenda-setting impacts of public participation

My research area will consist of the dynamic between ordinary citizens and their influencing potential on law makers. More specifically, my research area will concern the exact conditions which dictate the success of these ordinary citizens when seeking to exert influence. These exact conditions are not yet known, and may be in turn influenced by the introduction of democratic innovations. For instance, Pogrebinschi and Ryan examined the influence of the Brazilian democratic innovation - the National Public Policy Conferences (NPPCs) - and noted that the influence of NPPC's on 'non-redistributive issues' can be highly influential on agenda settings (Pogrebinschi and Ryan, 2017). In essence, this means that the influence of NPPCs was a condition of ordinary citizens effectively influencing law makers.
In establishing the conditions by which ordinary citizens can effectively influence law makers, I propose a research methodology based on two quantitative approaches. The first is the utilisation of time-series analysis wherein data points are taken across a series of time, and analysed so as to demonstrate consistent patterns or behaviour (Shin, 2017). Within the context of this project, a time-series analysis could be used to plot the degree of successful influence from ordinary citizens and note how this variable changes with the introduction of a democratic innovation or other interventions.
The second quantitative approach would be the use of the innovative fuzzy-set method of analysis. In essence, an analysis based on fuzzy-sets can differentiate the degree of causality from the differing variables which form a condition (Ragin, 1987). In the context of this project, this means that fuzzy-set analysis can establish the degree that a condition caused ordinary citizens to become more influencing towards law makers. By doing so, we can identify the democratic innovations which produced the conditions required for this change in influencing power.

If my probable research area and topic could be composed as a research question, then that question would be "Which democratic innovations provide the best conditions for ordinary citizens to influence law makers?". By adopting approaches based on the two quantitative methods outlined, then I hope to answer this question.