Divergent Interests Between Electors and Elected: A Precursor to Democratic Erosion in America
In the 2014 paper “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”, Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page found that there is a very weak correlation between public opinion on a given policy and the said policy’s chance of passing. A much stronger correlation was found between policy success and economic elite opinion or interest group opinions. This suggests that people who are voting aren’t making much of an effect as their opinions have much less sway over the representatives than the opinions of the elite.
This is important because a disconnect this wide in a democracy between the electorate and representatives suggests a damning lack of vertical accountability.
Vertical Accountability is the ability of the people to hold their representatives to their responsibilities and make sure their interests are followed. Arguably the main method of vertical accountability in American Democracy is voting, however the paper analyzed data from between 1981 and 2002 over which time politicians acting against the people would presumably be voted out. Whether these unaccountable politicians are getting reelected or getting replaced with other similar politicians the result is the same, a government that follows the interests of the politicians instead of the people.
While this in and of itself is already quite clearly problematic, it’s not necessarily the democratic erosion. Democratic erosion tends to refer to Governmental Actions such as laws passed or executive orders whereas this unaccountability is a pattern of behavior written in no laws. This being said, a government with the set precedent of disregarding public opinion is free to erode democracy as much as it wants through those more official means.
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