Competitive vs. consensual government and political representation

Tom Louwerse, and Rudy B. Andeweg (2026) Competitive vs. consensual government and political representation, In: Freire, André, Önnudóttir, Eva. H., Pedrazzani, Andrea, and Schmitt, Hermann (Eds.) Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Representation, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 751–757

Authors

Tom Louwerse

Rudy B. Andeweg

Published

March 2026

Doi

10.4337/9781035324828.00157

Abstract

This article explores the dichotomy between competitive and consensual visions of democracy, emphasizing their distinct institutional designs and implications for political representation. Competitive government focuses on ensuring electoral competition between alternating political elites and, in its maximalist interpretation, ensuring that government policy reflects majority support for policies among voters. Consensus government focuses on shared decision-making: including all societal groups in political decision-making and protecting minorities against the tyranny of the majority. As a result, competitive government is argued to be most concerned with adequate median voter representation, while under consensus government a key measure of representativeness is whether the distribution of voter preferences is adequately reflected in the elected body. Addressing contemporary challenges, the article discusses the impact of fading political cleavages, accountability issues, and globalization on both competitive and consensual democracies.