Issue prioritisation decisions by local politicians: the role of order effects and justification requirements

Abstract

When taking issue prioritisation decisions within local governments, politicians have to process extensive performance information that includes multiple dimensions. As politicians are subject to cognitive constraints, this study advances our understanding of issue prioritisation decisions through a behavioural perspective, integrating arguments from the literature on performance information and order effects. More specifically, this study investigates how the order of performance information affects local politicians’ issue prioritisation decisions. In addition, the study examines a debiasing technique (justification requirements) to reduce potential biases within local governments. Using survey-experiment data (n = 1,291), this study finds that the order of the evidence does not influence politicians’ issue prioritisation decisions at the local level. Yet, local politicians pay more attention to the evidence when asked to justify their issue prioritisation decisions. This study also discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the study findings.

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