Substance or behavior as links? Explaining representational judgments

Abstract

This chapter follows a subjective approach for evaluating representation and examines “citizens’ feeling of being represented” by the national parliament and their representatives. The authors examine this subject in two ways. The first explanatory approach emphasizes the relevance of substantive representation. In short, the more positively citizens perceive themselves to be represented concerning their values, issue preferences or their concerns as a member of a social group, the more positively they will evaluate the institutions and actors of the representational process. The second approach focuses on the behavior of representatives. It predicts representational judgments based on perceptions of MPs’ behavior. The results show that both explanatory approaches are relevant in explaining citizens’ representational judgments, but also suggest that perceptions of substantive representation are slightly more important than perceptions of MPs’ behavior