Authors: Hermet, Badie, Birnbaum & Braud
Summary: In about 380 words, the entry first retraces the origins of the scientific usage of the term, then proposes three definitions, one specific and, derivatively, two more general applications of it.
Specifically, agenda is defined as the plan through which institutional political actors determine both the list of the demands addressed to them and the constraints they face.
Since demands exceed resources and are often conflicting with one another, agenda can also be defined, from a top-down perspective, as the chronological planning of priorities that will be actually pursued.
In addition, from a bottom-up perspective, agenda can be thought of in terms of the efforts individuals and groups make to have their own demands introduced in the agenda of political actors.
The entry closes noticing that agendas are never unique, but each authority of a state or each party in a coalition may push forward its own agenda causing a complex political dynamics between rival demanders and divided decision makers.