Why elected representatives are not responsive
Democracy is understood as a system that has free and fair elections and other kinds of civil rights that make elections have meaning. These kinds of civil rights include freedom of speech, association, and freedom of the press. This type of democracy is referred to as the representative democracy because of how citizens are involved in making the decisions carried out by the state is by electing representatives to make those decisions for them (Neblo, Esterling &Lazer 2018). Representative democracy is referred to as the “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. This means that representative democracy should entirely cater to the needs and interests of the people. However, it does not only represent the people but also radical parties, countries, and businesses among others. Despite being termed as a people’s representative, it cannot cater to every person or represent their diversity and all their interests making the representatives unresponsive.
The unresponsiveness and difficulties related to the acting people and not necessarily the institutions. This is because the policies of the institutions are clearly defined but the act of representing depends on the representative elected. When the policies of the representatives are not clearly defined, they tend to act upon their ways and what they know is right making them unresponsive to the people’s needs and interests. This is the cause of dysfunctions and lack of good representations for the citizens because some of the representatives act on what benefits them and not the people that elected them (Neblo, Esterling &Lazer 2018). There have been conflicts erupting from the representatives in the point that if a representative should do according to how the constituents prefer and follow obligations and guidelines or if he should be set free to do that what seems best for the welfare of the people. These conflicts make the representative become unresponsive and end up not fulfilling his responsibilities for the citizens in the manner that he should have.
Another complication that causes unresponsiveness and dysfunction is the question of political parties, national concern, and challenges that are a result of being a representative in a diverse community. Most of the time, the local interests are favored because of the notion that the representative was locally elected (Neblo, Esterling &Lazer 2018). Other arguments are that the interest of the local citizens is similar to national interests. This is a cause of dysfunction because in most cases, the local interest is different from the national interest and therefore the representatives need to pursue the national interest just in the same way they pursue the local interests.
Responsiveness is an objective of the democratic government whereby the government responds to the needs and interests of the citizens. Responsiveness is different from representation in that in representation, the government actions reflect the interests of the public opinion. A government can be a representative without a direct responsiveness causal mechanism (Erikson 1). Policies can be responsive to public opinion but rather be biased because of other influences other than the public ones. For responsiveness to work in a democracy, other links in the causal chain must be unbroken. Citizens can vote their representatives in and out of office based on the competence of their policy representation. The reason there is a decline in responsiveness is that some of the representatives are not up to the task and do not believe that they have to follow the public opinion. Some do not have an idea of what their constituents want. Another cause of decline is how the government policy reflects the views of the citizens and also the public has a very limited role in the process of making policies. Examples that show the decline include a low voter turnout and an observed increase in the reluctance of citizens wanting to become politicians. Other problems include political parties losing their origins in the community which is impacted by a decline in responsiveness.
Representative democracy includes a government that is both responsive and responsible. When a government is responsive, it builds support that allows it to come up with decisions that are not necessarily responsive but responsible. When the government is responsive, it builds a reservoir of benevolence that can be used for survival during the more difficult time (Linde, Jonas & Peters 1). Responsive and responsible decisions can be a conflict of interests but they work in situations where they do not need the government to choose between the wants of the people and the responsible thing to do as a government. Political support is a significant factor in the relationship between a responsive and responsible government. The way political parties and representatives act is responsive to the interests of people. Citizens tend to react following the perceptions they get about the political system. This impacts their vote, and also the way they express their support, trust, and lack of support towards the functioning of the political system.
Works Cited
Erikson, Robert S. Policy responsiveness to public opinion. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Linde, Jonas, and Yvette Peters. “Responsiveness, Support, and Responsibility: How Democratic
Responsiveness Facilitates Responsible Government.” Party Politics, vol. 26, no. 3, May 2020, pp. 291–304, doi: 10.1177/1354068818763986.
Neblo, Michael A., Kevin M. Esterling, and David MJ Lazer. Politics with the people: Building
a directly representative democracy. Vol. 555. Cambridge University Press, 2018.
