Mechanisms of Political Responsiveness: The Information Sources Shaping Elected Representatives' Policy Actions

• Published date: 01 September 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129241248406
• Author: Evelien Willems,Bart Maes,Stefaan Walgrave
• Date: 01 September 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2024, Vol. 77(3) 851–865

© The Author(s) 2024

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129241248406

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Mechanisms of Political Responsiveness:

The Information Sources Shaping Elected

Representatives’Policy Actions

Evelien Willems

1

, Bart Maes

1

, and Stefaan Walgrave

1

Abstract

This study examines the micro-level foundations of how policy responsiveness may come about. Our study builds on the

assumption that elected off‌icials’information source use shapes their policy actions. We analyze the variation in in-

formation sources elected off‌icials rely on for agenda-setting and policy formulation, distinguishing between public

opinion sources, advocacy sources, and expert sources. Additionally, we examine how elected off‌icials’public opinion

sources vary across individuals, parties, and political systems. Based on a 2015 survey with 345 Members of Parliament in

Belgium and Canada, the results indicate that the actions of elected representatives are more affected by public opinion

sources like citizens and the mass media when they initially prioritize issues for policy action, while interest groups are

prominent in both stages, and parties and expert sources are more used in the policy formulation phase. Furthermore,

politicians in majoritarian systems, those belonging to the opposition and members of populist parties, tend to rely more

on public opinion sources than their peers in proportional systems, those in the majority and non-populist parties.

Keywords

political elites, information sources, representation, public opinion, responsiveness

Introduction

In a democracy, policies are expected to ref‌lect citizens’

preferences, and there should be no persistent and sys-

tematic discrepancy between public opinion and policies

(Dahl 1998). Policies ref‌lecting citizens’preferences

provide legitimacy, affect citizens’overall satisfaction

with the functioning of democracy, foster democratic trust

and support, and create leeway for the acceptance of

“unpopular”decisions (Esaiasson, Gilljam, and Persson

2017;Linde and Peters 2020). Of course, policies should

not always blindly follow public opinion majorities as this

may collide with elected representatives’need to “act

responsibly”or harm minority rights. Hence, policies

unref‌lective of broad public preferences might sometimes

be democratically desired, but a minimal overlap between

citizens’preferences and policies ought to be present for

political representation to function.

This simple expectation has been examined in nu-

merous studies (for an overview, see Wlezien 2017). The

results of most of these studies pointed in the same di-

rection. In the majority of cases, policies indeed align with

citizens’preferences to some extent. Although policies are

not always congruent with popular wishes—a policy in

place is often not the exact outcome citizens want (see:

Lax and Phillips 2012)—policies tend to be responsive,

meaning that changes in popular preferences precede

matching changes in policies (Brooks and Manza 2006;

Page and Shapiro 1983;Stimson, MacKuen, and Erikson

1995).

Despite the widespread contention that “democracy

works,”scholars still debate the specif‌ic factors that make

policies ref‌lect popular preferences. Various factors have

been identif‌ied, including citizens’political information

and participation levels, descriptive characteristics of

elected representatives, the issue context, and political

institutions (Elkjær 2020;Lax and Phillips 2012;Schakel

2021;Soroka and Wlezien 2010). Most work has been

conducted at the aggregate, macro-level—or what Golder

1

University of Antwerp, Antwerp 2000, Belgium

Corresponding Author:

Evelien Willems, Department of Political Science, University of

Antwerp, Sint-Jacobstraat 2-4, Antwerp 2000, Belgium.

Email: evelien.willems@uantwerpen.be