Congruence/Satisfaction Puzzle in Parliamentary Democracies

• In Event: Achieving Representation in Electoral Democracies

Abstract

Previous studies have examined the relationship between various measures of ideological congruence between citizens and their governments and satisfaction with the working of democracy. An interesting puzzle has emerged. Even controlling for the “winner” effect, perceiving less ideological distance between yourself and the position of the government, ”egocentric congruence,” is significantly and robustly associated with greater individual satisfaction. But studies at the aggregate level are surprisingly inconsistent in finding associations between the distance of that government from the median citizen and democratic satisfaction (e.g. Mayne and Hakhverdian 2017). Is the individual level result spurious? Are we using the “wrong” measure to summarize aggregate representation from voters’ points of view? Do we need to control contextual factors such as the distribution of citizens’ ideological positions? Do citizens make too many errors in their perceptions of party ideological positions for the aggregate connection to emerge from the individual choices? These questions are examined using CSES and national election study data at both individual and aggregate levels from 90 parliamentary legislative elections in twenty democracies 1996-2017.

Author

• G. Bingham Powell, University of Rochester