< Back to previous page

Project

Voter Information and Political Accountability (FWOAL861)

The link between citizens and their elected representatives is often conceptualised as a principal-agent relationship. As in any agency relation, accountability of the agents relative to their principals is an important concern (Barro 1973; Ferejohn 1986; Ashworth 2012). Access by the principals to information about their agents and their behaviour is thereby critical. Voters need sufficient and accurate information about politicians and their performance to hold their elected representatives accountable during elections. The central aim of this project is to extend our understanding of the crucial role of voters’ (access to) information for the fundamental agency issue in representative democracies, and how it can help manage conflicting interests between politicians and citizens. This is not only important from an academic perspective, but also has notable policy implications and specifically offers novel insights into the design of democratic institutions.
The project specifically addresses two issues. First, it analyses how information affects voter responsiveness to public sector performance as well as politician responsiveness to voter demands. Second, it evaluates how politicians’ membership in political parties can alleviate voters’ incomplete information problems under multilevel governance structures. As such, the project provides a better understanding of whether, when and how the principal-agent relationship between politicians and citizens works.
Date:1 Jan 2018 →  31 Dec 2021
Keywords:voter, political
Disciplines:Political organisations and institutions not elsewhere classified