ABSTRACT
This chapter is about politicians and their responses to public opinion. Four linkage models from Chapter 1 come into play. The Sharing model represents the fact that democratically elected politicians are drawn from their own constituency and thus to some extent share constituency values. However, not to be ignored is the obvious upper-income white male bias to the kinds of people who become elected leaders. The Parties model posits ideologically distinct parties that allow voters to choose candidates with whom they agree, even without much knowledge about the details. Party divisions among elites are obviously important; interestingly, more partisans would prefer their party to be even more extreme than moderate. The Delegate model has candidates reacting to voter preferences, perhaps from fear of electoral sanctions. Plenty of evidence exists that politicians try to follow public opinion. The Interest Groups model has politicians responding to public opinion via interest groups collectively representing public opinion. Interest group power has an upper-income bias, which distorts the effectiveness of this model as an instrument for representation.
