Substantive Representation: Public Competence and Policy Responsiveness

Question 1

why is collective wisdom rational?

Answer 1

People update their opinions and knowledge, even with incomplete knowledge. Process of updating is what makes it rational.

But if the input is wrong or low quality, people will not get to good positions.

Question 2

Page and Shapiro on the collective rationality

Answer 2

even though you have people who change opinions / don’t know what their opinion is, there is always a central tendency / stable collective.

Question 3

Soroka & Wlezien: thermostatic model

Answer 3

model shows that substantive representation works. On issues that are important you have more responses.

Less important = less response.

Question 4

When are governments less responsive?

Answer 4

if they are in a comfortable position (will win anyway)

otherwise, why do all the work and respond to the voters when they are going to vote for you anyway

= margin victory

Question 5

weakness Thermostatic Model

Answer 5

Public opinion not unified, but fragmented.
So is the average still meaningful?

So you have an average opinion, but no one really has this average opinion.

This means you’re kind of representing no one, which is a problem.

Question 6

What if the feedback loop fails?

Answer 6

People can change preferences on policy etc., how can people react.

Relative preferences might get more extreme, gap can increase.

If relative preferences increase, you also need to get louder to be heard. More distress / more scepticism.