Conditional Responsiveness in France and Germany

• Applicant: Professor Christian Breunig, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 281515512

The basic premise of democratic governance is that government represents citizen wishes. In its simplest form, governments assess citizen wishes based on electoral outcomes and publicly expressed problems and respond to these demands by enacting laws. Citizens in turn readjust their priorities as policies change. This project examines if and when governments respond to citizen demands. Our main contention is that government responsiveness is not constant and not a given; instead it is conditioned on the electoral pressure placed on government. We conceptualize electoral pressure in two ways: proximity to the election and government approval ratings. Governments are most responsive shortly before elections and when their electoral fortunes are threatened. We focus on polls on government popularity as an indicator of government approval between elections; electoral polls are used as an indicator of closeness. Finally, we contend that economic context may disrupt the connection between citizens and government. The proposal acknowledges previous work that explores how the linkage between citizens and government is modified by political institutions, such as electoral system, the type of government, and federalism. In addition to offering a more nuanced understanding of political responsiveness, the project delivers an innovative research design. Our investigation leverages empirical insights from two sources. First, we conduct a quantitative analysis of political activities using comparative policy agendas data. We concentrate our efforts to the period between 2007-2013 in France and Germany. France and Germany are a particularly interesting comparison in this context, as both followed a similar electoral calendar with one election in 2007/2008 and another one in 2012/2013 and an upcoming election in 2017 in both countries. Both countries also had to respond to the European economic crisis. Second, we test the micro-level mechanisms at the government and citizen level. A mail survey, which entails an experimental design, investigates if elected representatives respond to different public demands. We exploit a natural experiment occurring in public opinion surveys in order to test the readjustment of citizen wishes after governmental policy change. In short, this project delivers an important contribution to the understanding of when governments listen to public demands and provides evidence for the conditionality of responsiveness in Western democracies.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Emiliano Grossman, Ph.D.