Does it Matter that Most Representatives are Higher Educated?

Hakhverdian, Armèn

doi:10.1111/spsr.12166

Cited by 35 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In a similar vein, working class representatives in the United States think and act differently on economic issues, even when controlling for a host of other factors (Carnes, 2013; see also Butler, 2014). Comparable findings emerge in the local level in the Netherlands where higher educated local representatives were found to be more pro-EU and pro-immigration than their lower educated colleagues, mirroring findings on the relationship between education and attitudes at the mass level (Hakhverdian et al ., 2018).…”

Section: Descriptive (Mis)representationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ideological congruence and socio-economic inequality

Schakel

Hakhverdian

2018

Eur. Pol. Sci. Rev.

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This study examines whether or not political representation in the Netherlands is biased toward the rich and higher educated by comparing the political orientations of members of parliament to those of the electorate. The analyses reveal stark differences in the representation of different socio-economic groups. The political views of elected national representatives are far more similar to those of rich, higher educated citizens than to those with less income and education. Moreover, a longitudinal analysis reveals that inequalities in political representation have actually grown in recent years. We also show that the use of measures of ideological self-identification might to lead to highly misleading results regarding the nature of political representation as opposed to the use of issue items. We conclude that, despite a highly proportional electoral system, the views which are represented in the Dutch lower house of parliament contain major distortions of the views of the broader electorate.

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Section: Descriptive (Mis)representationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ideological congruence and socio-economic inequality

Schakel

Hakhverdian

2018

Eur. Pol. Sci. Rev.

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“…In line with current research, we argue that incongruences might be linked to social inequalities and the fact that some groups get systematically better represented than others. Specifically, richer and better educated citizens are likely to get a representation bonus from their representatives or their governments (Aaldering, 2017;Bartels, 2008;Giger et al, 2012;Hakhverdian, 2015;Peters and Ensink, 2015).…”

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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“…It was possible to measure four key background variables for all MPs in the sample: age (measured by year of birth), sex, race, and whether or not the MP received a university education. Again, most of the data come from vanHeerde-Hudson higher-educated people tend to be more socially liberal and pro-immigration, which can also affect support for social policy (Hakhverdian 2015). These variables capture the main observable differences between Labour MPs, who are remarkably similar to each other in most other ways.…”

Section: Other Personal Characteristics Of Mpsmentioning

confidence: 99%