Abstract
By making it easier for citizens to communicate their preferences, online forms of political participation have the potential to strengthen the representational link between politicians and voters. However, we know little about the effects of online advocacy on politicians’ behavior. Using new data from an e‐petition system in the United Kingdom, I show that support for a petition among a Member of Parliament’s constituents is associated with a substantial increase in the probability that the MP advocates for the petition in parliamentary debate, even when compared to MP behavior in counterfactual non‐petition debates which focus on the same policy issues. However, MP responsiveness is conditioned both by party discipline and electoral competition. These findings have important implications for our understanding of dyadic representation in parliamentary systems.
Highlights
License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
The SMD electoral system used for Westminster elections creates incentives for MPs to cater to their constituents (Cain, Ferejohn, and Fiorina 1984), and these incentives may be weaker than in some other systems (Carey and Shugart 1995), recent evidence suggests that voters in the United Kingdom are more supportive of MPs who have strong local links with the constituency (Campbell et al 2019b); who dedicate more time to constituency issues (Vivyan and Wagner 2016); and who demonstrate greater independence from the party line (Campbell et al 2019a; Vivyan and Wagner 2012)
The system is popular: UK e-petitions accumulated more than 50 million signatures between 2015 and 2019, and petition signing is the second most popular form of political activity in the United Kingdom, with nearly 30% of adults signing e-petitions each year (Hansard Society 2018)
Summary
Online Activism and Dyadic Representation: Evidence from the UK E-Petition System. By making it easier for citizens to communicate their preferences, online forms of political participation have the potential to strengthen the representational link between politicians and voters. A central dilemma for reelection-seeking politicians is that acquiring information on the preferences of voters can be difficult and costly This can have pernicious effects, for even when politicians have incentives to adapt their behavior to reflect constituents’ preferences, a paucity of information will mean that politicians’ knowledge of such preferences may be biased (Broockman and Skovron 2018; Norris and Lovenduski 2004); that responsiveness will be limited License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
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