Finding inequality in an unlikely place: Differences in policy congruence between social groups in Belgium

Lesschaeve, Christophe

doi:10.1057/s41269-016-0033-x

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Such political inequalities seem to extend to the important area of substantive representation (Pitkin 1967: 112–143). Studies in various European countries show that party positions are more congruent with the views of higher educated citizens than the views of those with lower levels of education (Lesschaeve 2016; Aaldering 2017; Rosset & Stecker 2019). However, despite the disproportionate presence of the higher educated throughout the political process, there is no direct evidence that highly educated citizens have a larger influence on government policy.…”

Section: Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Degrees of influence: Educational inequality in policy representation

Schakel

Pas

2020

European J Political Res

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Education plays an important role in the political, social and economic divisions that have recently characterised Western Europe. Despite the many analyses of education and its political consequences, however, previous research has not investigated whether government policy caters more to the preferences of the higher educated than to the preferences of the lower educated. We address this question using an original dataset of public opinion and government policy in the Netherlands. This data reveals that policy representation is starkly unequal. The association between support for policy change and actual change is much stronger for highly educated citizens than for low and middle educated citizens, and only the highly educated appear to have any independent influence on policy. This inequality extends to the economic and cultural dimensions of political competition. Our findings have major implications for the educational divide in Western Europe, as they reflect both a consequence and cause of this divide.

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Section: Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Degrees of influence: Educational inequality in policy representation

Schakel

Pas

2020

European J Political Res

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“…Specifically, it has been shown that parties are more in favour of European integration than their voters (Thomassen and Schmitt 1997), and that they hold less conservative or authoritarian preferences than the public (Dalton, 2017;Freire and Belchior, 2013;Thomassen, 2012). Moreover, elected representatives do not reflect citizens mostly favourable view on state intervention in the economy very well (Rosset, 2016;Lesschaeve, 2017). To date, this scepticism is mainly based on studies focusing on the link between parties and their voters.…”

Section: Introduction *mentioning

confidence: 99%

How well are citizens represented by their governments? Issue congruence and inequality in Europe

Rosset¹,

Stecker

2019

Eur. Pol. Sci. Rev.

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This study analyses congruence across various issues in 16 European democracies. Making use of public opinion and expert survey data, our analyses show that congruence between the policy preferences of citizens and the stances of governments is much more complex than what is revealed by studies focusing on ideology solely. Size and directions of incongruence are larger and more systematic on specific issues than on the left–right scale. On redistribution, citizens are more to the left than their governments, while popular support for European integration is systematically lower among citizens than among their representatives. Moreover, the relatively poor are particularly underrepresented on redistribution, while the preferences of the relatively lower educated are not well reflected in government preferences in relation to European integration. We interpret these results as being partly linked to a representation gap with privileged social groups enjoying higher levels of congruence with their government.

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“…Not only do the higher educated and the lower educated differ in attitudes, they also differ in policy preferences. Research into the differences in opinions between citizens with lower and citizens with higher levels of educational attainment, points at different concerns and preferences (Bovens & Wille, 2017;Lesschaeve, 2017). The higher educated have a more globalist, multiculturalist and environmentalist outlook compared to the lower educated.…”

Section: Participation Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Different terminologies are used to characterize this new cleavage: Flanagan and Lee (2003) refer to it as the libertarianauthoritarian cleavage, Inglehart and Welzel (2005) use the labels post-materialist and materialist. This socio-cultural dimension also affects the policy positions taken up by political elites: as Lesschaeve (2017) shows, they are biased towards the interests of the privileged groups (highly educated, high income). Similarly, Filetti and Janmaat (2018) argue that the well-off are more effective in advancing their own interests, while preventing other interests and issues from reaching the policy agenda.…”

Section: Participation Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Democratic Innovation Reduce Bias? The G1000 as a New Form of Local Citizen Participation

Binnema

Michels

2021

International Journal of Public Administration

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Since less well educated citizens are underrepresented in many forms of citizen participation, deliberative 'mini-publics' have been introduced as a democratic innovation to redress some of this inequality. Using data from eleven Dutch deliberative mini-publics (G1000s), this study shows that despite attempts to broaden the appeal of the mini-public, a clear educational bias in the output of the deliberations remains; the output largely reflects the wishes and preferences of the more highly educated. Themes like crime and safety, immigration and integration, which are important concerns for many citizens in their local communities, rarely made it onto the G1000 'Agenda for the City'. From a perspective of democratic legitimacy, this finding is worrisome. The paper concludes with some suggestions that combine the strength of a deliberative setting with equality and external democratic legitimacy to overcome this problem.

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Finding inequality in an unlikely place: Differences in policy congruence between social groups in Belgium

Cited by 17 publications

References 45 publications

Degrees of influence: Educational inequality in policy representation

Degrees of influence: Educational inequality in policy representation

How well are citizens represented by their governments? Issue congruence and inequality in Europe

Does Democratic Innovation Reduce Bias? The G1000 as a New Form of Local Citizen Participation

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