Delegate,Trustee,or Personal: Preferences for Different Forms of Representation in America

Abstract

Do voters have an intrinsic preference for democracy? Assessing attitudes toward trustee or delegate models of representation risks conflating intrinsic and instrumental orientations toward democracy. To clarify the gap between intrinsic and instrumental support for political representation, we use a survey experiment to investigate whether US voters want representatives to enact the individual voter’s own preferences, regardless of countervailing attitudes held by the representative themselves or by their constituents. We find considerable support for this third, personal model of representation. We argue that this poses two important questions for democratic theorists. First, how do citizens’ observed preferences for dictating outcomes challenge normative democratic principles of representation? Furthermore, if we rethink how citizens engage in democratic processes, how does it change our understanding of democracy’s intrinsic worth in the public?

Keywords

democracy survey experiment representation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Achen

C. H.

Bartels

L. M.

(2017). Democracy for realists: Why elections do not produce responsive government (Revised edition). Princeton University Press.

Ahmed

(2023). Is the American public really turning away from democracy? Backsliding and the conceptual challenges of understanding public attitudes. Perspectives on Politics, 21(3), 967–978. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1537592722001062

Anderson

C. J.

Blais

Bowler

Todd

Listhaug

(2005). Losers’ consent: Elections and democratic legitimacy. Oxford University Press.

Barker

D. C.

Carman

C. J.

(2012). Representing red and blue: How the culture wars change the way citizens speak and politicians listen (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.

Brennan

(2016). Against democracy. Princeton University Press.

Carey

Clayton

Helmke

Nyhan

Sanders

Stokes

(2022). Who will defend democracy? Evaluating tradeoffs in candidate support among partisan donors and voters. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties, 32(1), 230–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2020.1790577

Carman

C. J.

(2006). Public preferences for parliamentary representation in the UK: An overlooked link? Political Studies, 54(1), 103–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2006.00568.x

Carman

C. J.

(2007). Assessing preferences for political representation in the US. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties, 17(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13689880601132497

Converse

P. E.

Pierce

(1986). Political representation in France. Harvard University Press.

10.

Crawford

J. T.

Pilanski

J. M.

(2014). Political intolerance, right and left. Political Psychology, 35(6), 841–851. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2012.00926.x

11.

Dassonneville

Blais

Sevi

Daoust

J.-F.

(2021). How citizens want their legislator to vote. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 46(2), 297–321. https://doi.org/10.1111/lsq.12275

12.

Disch

(2011). Toward a mobilization conception of democratic representation. American Political Science Review, 105(1), 100–114. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055410000602

13.

Dryzek

J. S.

Bächtiger

Chambers

Cohen

Druckman

J. N.

Felicetti

Fishkin

J. S.

Farrell

D. M.

Fung

Gutmann

Landemore

Mansbridge

Marien

Neblo

M. A.

Niemeyer

Setälä

Slothuus

Suiter

Thompson

Warren

M. E.

(2019). The crisis of democracy and the science of deliberation. Science, 363(6432), 1144–1146. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw2694

14.

Fossen

(2019). Constructivism and the logic of political representation. American Political Science Review, 113(3), 824–837. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055419000273

15.

Fox

Shotts

K. W.

(2009). Delegates or trustees? A theory of political accountability. The Journal of Politics, 71(4), 1225–1237. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022381609990260

16.

Frederiksen

K. V. S.

(2022). Does competence make citizens tolerate undemocratic behavior? American Political Science Review, 116(3), 1147–1153. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055422000119

17.

Graham

M. H.

Svolik

M. W.

(2020). Democracy in America? Partisanship, polarization, and the robustness of support for democracy in the United States. American Political Science Review, 114(2), 392–409. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055420000052

18.

Guerrero

A. A.

(2010). The paradox of voting and the ethics of political representation. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 38(3), 272–306. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1088-4963.2010.01188.x

19.

Harms

Landwehr

Lutz

Tepe

(2021). Deciding how to decide on public goods provision: The role of instrumental versus intrinsic motives. Research & Politics, 8(2), 20531680211014120. https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680211014121

20.

Kalmoe

N. P.

Mason

(2022). Radical American partisanship: Mapping violent hostility, its causes, and the consequences for democracy. University of Chicago Press.

21.

Kolodny

(2014). Rule over none II: Social equality and the justification of democracy. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 42(4), 287–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/papa.12037

22.

Krishnarajan

(2022). Rationalizing democracy: The perceptual bias and (Un)Democratic behavior. American Political Science Review, 117(2), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055422000806

23.

Lafont

(2015). Deliberation, participation, and democratic legitimacy: Should deliberative mini-publics shape public policy? The Journal of Political Philosophy, 23(1), 40–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopp.12031

24.

Mansbridge

(2003). Rethinking representation. American Political Science Review, 97(4), 515–528. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055403000856

25.

Piazza

J. A.

(2022). Sore losers: Does terrorism and approval of terrorism increase in democracies when election losers refuse to accept election results? Political Research Quarterly, 75(4), 1201–1215. https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211054451

26.

Rawls

(2005). Political liberalism (Expanded edition): Columbia University Press.

27.

Rehfeld

(2011). The concepts of representation. American Political Science Review, 105(3), 631–641. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055411000190

28.

Rosset

Giger

Bernauer

(2017). I the people? Self-interest and demand for government responsiveness. Comparative Political Studies, 50(6), 794–821. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414015621078

29.

Stilz

(2019). Territorial sovereignty: A philosophical exploration. Oxford University Press.

30.

Waldron

(2009). Representative lawmaking. Boston University Law Review, 89(2), 335–355.

31.

Wilson

J. L.

(2019). Democratic equality. Princeton University Press.

32.

Wuttke

Gavras

Schoen

(2022). Have Europeans grown tired of democracy? New evidence from eighteen consolidated democracies, 1981–2018. British Journal of Political Science, 52(1), 416–428. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007123420000149

33.

Wuttke

Schimpf

Schoen

(2020). When the whole is greater than the sum of its parts: On the conceptualization and measurement of populist attitudes and other multidimensional constructs. American Political Science Review, 114(2), 356–374. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055419000807

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.90 MB