Electoral Systems and Citizen-Elite Ideological Congruence

Abstract

Electoral rules play an important role in determining citizen-elite ideological congruence. This is because they influence each stage of the representation process as one moves from citizen preferences to policy outcomes. Electoral rules directly affect ideological congruence due to the way they shape citizen preferences and the composition of party systems, legislatures, and governments. Electoral rules can also have an indirect effect on ideological congruence through the incentives they create for elite responsiveness and their impact on descriptive representation. In addition to reviewing the existing literature, this chapter suggests new avenues for future research. In particular, it suggests that significant gains can be made by addressing ideological congruence and responsiveness in a unified theoretical framework and by having more interaction between scholars of ideological congruence and those interested in descriptive and substantive representation.