Citizen Evaluations of Unequal Policy Representation

• In Event: Unequal Representation and Its Consequences in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

In recent years, many scholars have argued that policymaking in Western democracies is biased towards high-income citizens. The significance of such political inequality partly depends on its effects on citizens’ political attitudes and behavior, and, indeed, unequal representation is commonly suggested to produce disaffection. However, we do not know whether this is actually true. In this study, we explore whether, where and for whom being presented with evidence of unequal representation affects citizens’ evaluation of the political system, with the latter being an important condition for other, downstream consequences, including voting behavior. We do that using an original vignette experiment in the United States and Sweden, two countries with vastly different levels of economic inequality but both marked by political inequality. The main hypothesis we test is that citizens will disapprove of unequal representation in an abstract sense, but any effects on political support will be drowned out in concrete cases by egocentric representation. We also expect the effect to be highly conditional on citizens’ own identities and equality norms. Taken together, our findings will cast light on the costs of unequal representation and potentially explain why it seems to persist across time and space. In addition, this experiment teaches us more about how citizens judge their governments, especially when multiple goals conflict.

Authors

• Mikael Persson, University of Gothenburg

• Wouter Schakel, University of Amsterdam

• Christopher Wratil, University of Vienna