Neither responsive, nor responsible? Citizens’ understandings of political actors’ responsiveness and responsibility in the socio-economic governance of the EU

Abstract

The implications of the dilemma attributed to Mair between the responsiveness of political actors and their responsibility is considered from the perspective of citizens. The article analyses citizens’ understandings of political actors’ responsiveness and responsibility in their discourses on the SEGEU. We provide an in-depth abductive secondary analysis of three qualitative datasets collected in Belgium and France between 2005 and 2019. Most participants frame responsibility and responsiveness in terms that are close to Mair’s definitions. However, some challenge the principle of responsibility and elaborate an alternative understanding directed towards achieving the common good. Nevertheless, as participants agree that political actors are not responsive to them, but rather to market actors, there is no evident dilemma. Our analysis shows that political actors’ capacity for agency and choice, frames participants’ understandings of responsiveness and responsibility. This result becomes the basis for a reconceptualisation of the notion of responsiveness and representation from a citizen perspective.