I the People? Self-Interest and Demand for Government Responsiveness

Abstract

Whether elected representatives should be responsive to the wishes of the majority of citizens has been an issue often discussed from a normative perspective. This article shifts the focus by looking at the determinants of support for responsiveness among citizens. Its core argument is that attitudes toward responsiveness vary systematically depending on the policy gains an individual can expect from a government that is responsive to the preferences of the majority of citizens. The analysis of data from the European Social Survey and 21 countries confirms these expectations. Individuals whose ideological stances are reflected well by the incumbent government are less favorable to the idea that governments should be responsive to the preferences of the majority, while one’s proximity to the ideological location of the median citizen increases the odds of support for majority responsiveness. Our findings are stable across a large variety of European democracies.

Taking Sides: Determinants of Support for a Presidential System in Turkey

“…Alternatively the state of affairs during the post-June election period, with repeated terror attacks in many parts of the country, could be the driving force. 25 The considerable decline in support for presidentialism among AKP partisans, on the other hand, could be explained by theories that link individual self-interest of voters (e.g., Anderson and Guillory 1997;Rosset et al, 2016) and politicians (e.g., Bowler et al 2006) to preferences for institutional arrangements. 26 These theories would predict increased support for presidentialism among AKP voters the more likely it appears that an AKP member is going to occupy the post of executive presidency should it be created.…”

Multidimensional government-citizen congruence and satisfaction with democracy

“…Whereas citizens who adhere to a trustee conception of representation will tend to grant more leeway to the government in finding the best policy solutions, citizens who favour a delegate conception expect a more direct link between public opinion and government policy. The exact reasons for this varying demand for policy responsiveness is beyond the scope of our study (see Rosset et al ), but we will investigate the implications for the effect of policy distances on SWD. We posit that policy distances should hit harder on SWD when citizens’ demand for policy responsiveness is high…”

Two Sides of the Same Coin? Congruence and Responsiveness as Representative Democracy's Currencies

“…More recently, scholars of responsiveness have followed the example of scholars on issue congruence and assess the consequences of policy responsiveness for democratic satisfaction or the acceptability of political decisions (e.g., Arnesen & Peters, ; Esaiasson & Wlezien, ; Esaiasson et al, ). Others examine under which circumstances citizens value and perceive responsiveness (Bowler, ; Rosset, Giger, & Bernauer, ), or responsiveness to particular subgroups in society (Grimes & Esaiasson, ).…”