Abstract
Political Linkage and Public Policy: Attitudinal Congruence between Citizens and Officials
Highlights
Without consciously rejecting the Burkean notion ―- of a representative as trustee, recent democratic theorists have increasingly accepted a model of electoral accountability which holds that politicians are made responsive to their constituents by fear of the ballot box.&dquo; recent research on the urban political process in the San Francisco Bay area suggests that the electoral accountability model hardly operates at the local level.[2]
Where the norm of volunteerism is prevalent, according to Prewitt, councils are &dquo;(a) more likely to vote against what they see as majority opinion, (b) less likely to feel under pressure from the public, (c) less likely to consider the upcoming election when choosing among policy alternatives, (d) less likely to facilitate group access to the council, and (g) less likely to perform services for constituents.&dquo;8$
When these suburban leaders are divided on the basis of community social rank,[21] the following responses were reported regarding their political background and motivation for officeholding: Only three councilmen mentioned issues as being the motivating force to run for office, and only one person mentioned being contacted by any political party official or elected partisan ofl’-aceholder
Summary
―- of a representative as trustee, recent democratic theorists have increasingly accepted a model of electoral accountability which holds that politicians are made responsive to their constituents by fear of the ballot box.&dquo; recent research on the urban political process in the San Francisco Bay area suggests that the electoral accountability model hardly operates at the local level.[2] Instead, many city council members operate on the basis of their own self-defined images of the community’s needs with almost open disdain for the will of the majority and with little concern for voter retaliation Such a situation has serious implications for representative theory as applied to the local polity. An attempt will be made to test a belief-sharing model of political linkage which in certain situations may replace the electoral-accountability model propounded by many contemporary democratic theorists.[33]
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