Responsive to What? Explaining the Information Quality of Public Comments on Bureaucratic Policymaking Using a Text-as-Data Approach

When are public comments characterized by high information quality more likely to occur in bureaucratic policymaking? We answer this question using a text-as-data approach applied to an original dataset covering more than 20,000 comments across 1,037 policy acts issued by the European Commission. We construct four measures capturing our multi-dimensional concept of information quality of comments. Our argument emphasizes the interplay between the demand and supply of information provision and highlights the critical role of institutional factors in explaining comments’ information quality.

Siddharth Gautam Khare

I am a DPhil Candidate in Political Theory at St Anne’s College. My dissertation, The Discontents of Memory, investigates how states ought to address public commemorations of morally complex figures who have contributed both significant good and serious harm. The project evaluates whether, and under what conditions, nationalist, historical, or cultural attachments can legitimately mitigate calls for removal, recontextualization, or other state responses, and how such considerations align with universalist commitments to justice, dignity, and political equality.

Animal Politico
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