Abstract
This study analyses how information provided by different types of interest groups influences the ability of members of parliament (MPs) to accurately perceive the preferences of those citizens who voted them into office. To study how information provision by interest groups affects MPs’ perceptions, we combine unique data from a citizen survey and face-to-face meetings with 151 federal MPs in Switzerland, thus enabling a comparison of actual voter preferences with MPs’ estimations of these preferences. Ties to citizen groups, as self-reported by MPs in our survey, relate to more accurate perceptions by MPs, even when controlling for MPs’ partisan affiliation. Ties to business groups, as declared in the official registry, relate to less accurate perceptions. These findings suggest that interest groups can both tighten and weaken MPs’ link to their party voters, which might have repercussions on substantive representation and democratic accountability.
Highlights
Interest groups represent a most pervasive fact of modern democracies
Estimations informed by citizen groups are more accurate than those informed by business groups or no groups
Recent research has shown that this problem mostly concerns MPs tied to business groups, whereas ties to citizen groups increase MPs’ propensity to vote in their electorate’s interest (Giger and Kluver, 2016; Gilens and Page, 2014; Kluver and Pickup, 2019)
Summary
Interest groups represent a most pervasive fact of modern democracies. They are a vital part of representative politics as key intermediary actors between voters and members of parliament (MPs). Information drawn from sectional business groups should decrease MPs’ perceptual accuracy as they lead MPs to confound the position of a minority within their electorate with the party electorate as a whole (H2).
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