Political Representation: Linking Citizens and Representatives

Collectie SPAARNESTAD PHOTO/NA/Anefo/Kroon

The policy link between voters and politicians has been a central issue in politics for quite some time. My work focuses on the quality of this policy link: are representatives doing what people want?

elections parliaments representation
Tom Louwerse
Tom Louwerse
Associate Professor

Associate Professor in Political Science at Leiden University

Publications

Measuring representation: policy congruence
Policy congruence is concerned with the similarity of policy preferences of voters on the one hand and the preferences and actions of …
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The Institutional Framework of Representative Democracy; Comparing the Populist-Majoritarian and the Liberal/Consensual Model
Although the literature shows a bewildering variety of typologies of representative democracy, the most important distinctions can be …
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Keeping promises: VAAs and political representation
This study seeks to establish the effect of parliamentary specialisation on cosponsorship of parliamentary proposals in parliamentary …
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Verkiezingsbeloften: een verouderd ritueel? [Election promises: an obsolete ritual?]
PDF Project
Het democratisch mandaat van Nederlandse politieke partijen: crisis of continuïteit?
This article studies the extent to which Dutch political parties fulfil their electoral mandates.
Project Accepted Manuscript
Mechanisms of Issue Congruence: The Democratic Party Mandate
This article studies collective party mandate fulfilment by comparing parties’ election manifestos with the parliamentary speeches of their politicians in two countries: a typical consensus democracy, the Netherlands, and a typical majoritarian democracy, the United Kingdom.
Code Dataset Project DOI Online Appendices Accepted Manuscript
Political parties and the democratic mandate. Comparing Collective mandate fulfilment in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Do political parties fulfil their election mandates? This study provides an empirical analysis of a question many people feel …
PDF Dataset Project
The Spatial Approach to the Party Mandate
This article applies spatial theory to the question of the party mandate.
Project DOI Accepted Manuscript