Is There a Tradeoff Between Policy Responsiveness and Government Effectiveness? Evidence From the American States

• Author: Patrick Flavin
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X221112632
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

American Politics Research

2023, Vol. 51(2) 174–181

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/1532673X221112632

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Is There a Tradeoff Between Policy

Responsiveness and Government

Effectiveness? Evidence From the American

States

Patrick Flavin

1



Abstract

Citizens in a democracy expect elected off‌icials will be responsive to their political opinions and govern in an effective way that

improves their quality of life. However, a government that is too responsive to public sentiments may, in practice, be unable to

govern effectively and promote societal well-being. This study is the f‌irst attempt to date to empirically evaluate this important

potential tradeoff. Using newly developed measures of public opinion and public policy liberalism in the American states over

time and a diverse battery of societal outcomes as well as multiple estimation strategies and timeframes, I f‌ind a weak and

directionally inconsistent statistical relationship between policy responsiveness and government effectiveness. These f‌indings

have signif‌icant normative and theoretical implications because they suggest there is not a tradeoff between a government

responding to its citizens’opinions and it governing effectively by promoting citizens’well-being.

Keywords

political representation, government performance, public opinion, public policy

Two fundamental expectations citizens have about demo-

cratic government is that elected off‌icials will be responsive

to their political opinions and that they will govern in a way

that improves their quality of life. Accordingly, there are

large literatures in political science that investigate whether

(and under what conditions) public policy ref‌lects citizens’

opinions (Page & Shapiro, 1983;Erikson et al., 1993;

Erikson et al., 2002;Lax & Phillips, 2012;Gilens & Page,

2014) and what institutional and cultural factors promote

good and effective governance (La Porta et al., 1999;Knack,

2002;Helliwell & Huang, 2008;Rothstein, 2011;

Fukuyama, 2013). Similarly, there are large literatures that

evaluate the practice of democratic accountability by ex-

amining whether citizens punish policymakers at election

time who support policies that are out of step with public

opinion (Canes-Wrone et al., 2002;Hutchings, 2003;

Ansolabehere & Jones, 2010;Rogers, 2017) or govern

ineffectively and preside over poor outcomes (Fiorina,

1981;Huber et al., 2012;Healy & Malhotra, 2013;

Achen & Bartels, 2016).

However, at least dating back to debates at the time of the

American Founding and subsequent Constitutional Con-

vention, there have been serious questions raised about

whether there is an inherent tradeoff between policy re-

sponsiveness and government effectiveness.

Indeed, one of the primary arguments posited by the

Federalists in support of indirect elections and longer terms in

off‌ice is that a government that is too close to the people and

too responsive to public sentiments may be unable to govern

effectively and avoid chaos. Put another way, a government

that is too responsive to public opinion may not be able to

effectively promote societal well-being and the common

good. Instead, as James Madison writes in Federalist 10,“it

may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the

representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the

public good than if pronounced by the people themselves.”

This question of a potential tradeoff remains relevant from

both a theoretical and empirical standpoint still today, as

elected off‌icials who seek to cater to public opinion may

advocate for overspending or be unable to make diff‌icult

political choices that could ultimately promote a more ef-

fective government and better outcomes. Moreover, this

potential tradeoff is of particular importance for new and

1

Political Science, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

Patrick Flavin, Political Science, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97276,

Waco, TX 76798, USA.

Email: Patrick_J_Flavin@baylor.edu