‘’A member of parliament should act in the spirit of …’’ A study of the effects of personal valuations of political representation on political trust
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2023-07-14
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en
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Political representation is a widely studied topic in political science literature and has often been connected to political trust (Cowley, 2014; Heideman, 2020; Rosenthal, 1995; Sanchez & Morin, 2011). For certain underrepresented groups in society, such as lower educated voters and minority groups, it is argued that their levels of trust increases when their descriptive and/or substantive representation increases (Mansbridge, 1999; Philips, 1995). This study, firstly, investigates what it is that voters want from representation and secondly, whether valuations of different forms of representation leads to different levels of political trust, specifically trust in parliament. Based on a survey study of about 260 Dutch voters, the qualitative content analysis first shows that respondents point to different forms of representation. The quantitative analysis argues that there is no significant relationship between the valuations of substantive and descriptive representation and the trust in parliament. Additionally, even though the effects were not significant, the results seem to point to a negative relationship between their valuation of descriptive and substantive representation and trust in parliament, meaning that voters do not feel represented. This study argues for adding different insights to the theories on political representation and calls for a change in the way representation currently exists in parliament.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen