Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Multidimensional Democracy: The Supply and Demand of Political Representation

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

The central intellectual merit of this study is in providing a better understanding of the cornerstone of American democracy: political representation. Scholars have devoted several decades of research to representation, but past work typically studied the concept froma narrow perspective. The literature indentifies four dimensions, or components, of representation: (1) policy, or the influence of constituent opinion on voting behavior, (2) service, which involves individual assistance to constituents, (3) allocation, or the securing of funding for districts projects, and (4) symbolic, which denotes a connection from identity traits. Although this work collectively provides a comprehensive view of representation, most individual studies only focus on one component, and thus omit important elements of the process. Furthermore, most past research focuses on the behavior of elites. Less is known about citizens' preferences for the components of representation. This research utilizes three sources of original data to develop a supply-and-demand theory of representation that unifies those four dimensions and accounts for both elites' priorities (supply) and citizen demand. First, the investigator examines the supply of representation through survey experiments administered to state legislators and with a new archive of state legislators' websites. Both data sources are used to assess how representatives prioritize the components of representation when interacting with constituents. Second, the study also examines citizen demand for representation through survey experiments administered to a sample of American adults. Preliminary results show that demand is driven by how citizens expect government to play a role in their lives. This research will have several broader impacts. Upon completion, the three datasets will be made publicly available (the surveys in anonymous form). This project also has social value because it will inform discussions of the quality of representation in America.