Citizens’ Preferences for Multidimensional Representation

Jack Blumenau; Fabio Wolkenstein; Christopher Wratil

doi:10.1017/S1537592724001373

Citizens’ Preferences for Multidimensional Representation

Veröffentlichungen: Beitrag in Fachzeitschrift › Artikel › Peer Reviewed

Abstract

How do citizens want to be represented in politics? We investigate citizens’ multidimensional preferences regarding six conceptions of representation that are derived from political theory. Using original item batteries and a conjoint experiment, we elicit the relative importance of the dimensions and the types of representation people prefer on each dimension. Our results from surveys fielded in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany show that 1) descriptive representation has comparatively limited appeal for citizens at large, but is more important for historically marginalized groups; 2) citizens do not focus on local politicians when thinking about who represents them, but also seek representation from politicians in other districts; 3) while citizens strongly value substantive representation, they are largely indifferent as to whether their representatives are responsive to electoral sanctions. Our findings have important implications for how political scientists study democratic representation.

Originalsprache	Englisch
Seiten (von - bis)	588-610
Seitenumfang	23
Fachzeitschrift	Perspectives on Politics
Jahrgang	23
Ausgabenummer	2
Frühes Online-Datum	26 Dez. 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592724001373
Publikationsstatus	Veröffentlicht - 2025

Fördermittel

The authors are indebted to many colleagues who have provided excellent comments on this project, including Rodwan Abouharb, Stefanie Bailer, Lucy Barnes, Michael Bechtel, Matthew Bergman, Inken von Borzyskowski, Rikki Dean, Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik, Peter Esaiasson, Christina Gahn, Lotte Hargrave, Helene Helboe Pedersen, Daniel H\u00F6hmann, Lena Huber, Uwe Jun, Markus Kollberg, Ann-Kristin K\u00F6lln, Werner Krause, Ben Lauderdale, Jeanne Marlier, Stefan Marschall, Theres Matthie\u00DF, Paolo Morini, Wolfgang M\u00FCller, Tom O\u2019Grady, Miguel Pereira, Meg Russel, Tanja Sch\u00FCberl, Katerina Tertytchnaya, Asa von Schoultz, Manuel Wagner, Markus Wagner, Mirko Wegemann, Thomas Winzen, Reto W\u00FCest, and Thomas Zittel. Previous versions of this work were presented in seminars at University College London, the University of Trier, the University of Vienna, the University of D\u00FCsseldorf, the Center for Comparative and International Studies in Zurich, and The Mannheim Center for European Social Research, as well as at the \u201CRepresentation and Citizens\u2019 Political Beliefs and Behaviors\u201D workshop at the University of Basel in 2023 and the annual meetings of the European Political Science Association in 2021 and the European Consortium for Political Research in 2022. We thank Laura Pfisterer for her excellent research assistance on this project. The authors acknowledge generous financial support by the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University (provided to Fabio Wolkenstein). Co-funded by the European Union (ERC, MULTIREP, 101076033). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

ÖFOS 2012

506014 Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft
506013 Politische Theorie

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10.1017/S1537592724001373Lizenz: CC BY 4.0

https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2132462Lizenz: CC BY 4.0

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Citizens’ Preferences for Multidimensional Representation

Abstract

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ÖFOS 2012

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