Policy responsiveness to all citizens or only to voters? A longitudinal analysis of policy responsiveness in OECD countries

Abstract

A close connection between public opinion and policy is considered a vital element of democracy. In representative systems, elections are assumed to play a role in realising such congruence. If those who participate in elections are not representative of the public at large, it follows that the reliance on elections as a mechanism of representation entails a risk of unequal representation. In this paper, we evaluate whether voters are better represented by means of an analysis of policy responsiveness to voters and citizens in democracies worldwide. We construct a uniquely comprehensive dataset that includes measures of citizens ' and voters' ideological (left-right) positions, and data on welfare spending in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries since 1980. We find evidence of policy responsiveness to voters, but not to the public at large. Since additional tests suggest that the mechanism of electoral turnout does not cause this voter-policy responsiveness, we outline alternate mechanisms to test in future research.

Issue Voting and Government Responsiveness to Policy Preferences

“…Beginning with Miller and Stokes (1963), numerous studies have assessed responsiveness of governments to citizens' preferences. However, only a small number of studies have considered whether voting by citizens influences policy responsiveness by government (Dassonneville et al, 2020;Griffin & Newman, 2005).…”

“…Beginning with Miller and Stokes (1963), numerous studies have assessed responsiveness of governments to citizens' preferences. However, only a small number of studies have considered whether voting by citizens influences policy responsiveness by government (Dassonneville et al, 2020;Griffin & Newman, 2005).We pursue this line of research by considering whether issue voting influences responsiveness. A prominent explanation for policy responsiveness is that citizens vote for parties that share their policy preferences and governments, in turn,…”

Spread the word about freshwater mussels’ conservation: Increasing awareness and willingness to support conservation-oriented policies through social media

“…The question is, however, whether this public awareness created through social media campaigns may encourage the implementation of conservation-oriented policies. In this regard, studies have shown that politicians are responsive to the opinions of voters, but not to those of non-voters (Dassonneville et al, 2020). Hence, it is increasingly important to assess whether there is an empirical nexus between knowledge transference, voters’ choice, and conservation policies.…”

“…In this context, a modern European society must seek to strike a balance between bottom-up (considering citizens as the starting point) and top-down processes (the priorities set by politicians), and integrate it with European policy agendas (Treaty of Lisbon, 2007). Despite responsiveness and participation (i.e., social involvement) serving as the primary values for politicians (Huberts, 2014), researchers' influence on society-and consequently, in policy-making-has remained largely unexplored (Dassonneville et al, 2020).…”

Protest as One Political Act in Individuals’ Participation Repertoires: Latent Class Analysis and Political Participant Types

“…Examples of recent cross-national research on this topic include Htun and Weldon’s (2012) findings that women’s mobilization in autonomous social movements has affected policies to combat violence against women in 70 countries over four decades; and Rasmussen and Reher’s (2019) empirical results showing that civil society engagement has strengthened the relationship between public opinion and public policy across 20 policy issues in 30 European countries. These studies represent a growing body of literature that illustrates how scholars are increasingly tracing the linkages between a variety of political acts and representational outcomes (Ansolabahere & Kuriwaki, 2021; Dassonneville et al, 2020; Esaiasson & Wlezien, 2017; Hooghe et al, 2019; Hooghe & Oser, 2016; Wasow, 2020; Wouters & Walgrave, 2017).…”