The Congress' Responsiveness to the Mass Public - Essay Sample

Introduction

The rule of democracy implies that the legislators stand for the opinion of their constituents. However, the extent of the relationship between the views of the voters and the decisions implemented by the legislators is not adequately established by political scientists. Bartels unlike other scholars, who have not focused on the increased inequality in public opinion and public policy focuses on the way the disparities in the social system, has dramatically influenced change in various regions of the world. Bartels argues that the issue of the relationship between public opinion and public policy is the cause of multiple inequalities including economic inequality. Bartels examines how the gap in the relationship between the different socioeconomic groups has resulted in has resulted in unequal public policies within the political system that do not put into consideration the public opinions. Generally, the appropriate political representation that should be implemented by legislators is the substantive representation which entails seeking the general opinion of the constituents in regards to their policy preferences and interests.

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According to Bartels, the citizens who always enjoy the privilege of taking part in decision making are the citizens of higher income who various policy initiatives are implemented in their favor. Bartels further highlights that the challenges of income inequality influence the fairness of political structure hence directly impacting the nature of democracy. The political scientist also claims that the issue of income disparity experienced in the United States is not only an economic challenge but also a partly economic phenomenon. The claims of Bartels are accompanied by his evaluation of the trends of income between various socioeconomic groups since the administration of President Truman to the times of President George W. Bush by focusing on how Democrats and Republicans influence the economic inequality of Americans through various political policies. Bartels asserts in his study findings that the income inequality increases within the reign of the Republicans whereas, within the administrations of Democrat presidents, members of low socioeconomic classes perform better than their counterparts of higher socioeconomic level.

Most countries and political units have resorted to the democratic approaches in the engagement of their subjects. Democracy has been a matter in existence since time immemorial and gear towards respects and observation of the fundamental human rights. Representation of the general public is most observed by respect and observation of their basic rights to such basic issues such as voting. The elected leaders are expected to advocate for the services and representation on behalf of the electorates. Representation is vast and enormous. However, several theories have been advanced to simplify the aspects of representation such as trustee representation, sociological representation as well as agency representation.

There are various modes of elections for representations. Such measures include but are not limited to such aspects as voting for the representatives by relevant constituents. The broad categories of representations into delegates, trustees and politico representations are meant to help in harmonizing the overall gains of democratization of public interests in line with the international best practices of universal suffrage.

Bartels evaluates the relationship between the legislators and various groups of constituents, and he suggests that legislators vote according to the wishes of their constituents; hence all the citizens should experience equality in voting decision of the legislators. Bartels claims that in circumstances where there is a high-income level, the legislators are likely portrayed more significant variations in the responsiveness towards the constituents. Bartels states that democracy is characterized by the continued responsiveness if a government in regards to the citizens' preferences hence political equality. Generally, the potential of citizens to make an impact on public policy is the fundamental responsibility of a democratic government. Even though several people may expect a suitable link between the preference of the public and the government policy, the kind of relationship between the public opinions and the government policy is a critical factor in determining the extent of democratic administration

Consequently, legislators would have little motivation to take into consideration the preferences of the citizens without elections. However, the purposes of voting are to ensure that the will of the people is exercised rather than empowering just a class of citizens who have the financial possession and resources to make an impact on the political policies as argued by Bartels. The relationship between the preferences and systems can be determined by the assessment of the raw correspondence between various popular choices and policy outcomes. However, the strength of the correlation between policy preferences and the consequences of the policies across different socioeconomic classes can be determined by the measures of the relationship.

The arguments of Berelson et al., Popkin, and Bartels regarding the rationality of a citizen relies on an approach of low information rationality based on the information that voters receive during events such as campaigns which they use to establish narratives about political candidates. The analysis provided by Popkin relies on the premise that voters depend on low information rationality in their everyday lives that they gain through various interactions to assess the electorate candidates hence influencing the electoral process. According to Popkin, the scholars who argue that the knowledge determines political competence in books together with the titles of various bills miss the concept that voters gain the understanding of the stand of political candidates in multiple issues. Popkin claims that education does not influence the way of thinking of people but rather enhance the way people connect and interpret various cues.

The presentation of information to the electorates matters so much in influencing their voting pattern as well as determining their reasoning. For instance, during elections, we see many representatives doing everything in their powers to woo the electorates on their side by resorting to such crude means of campaigns such as propaganda and hearsays. The politicians have abused media which is meant to provide reliable and stable source f information to the electorates. The media propaganda has acted in swaying the electorates wrongfully towards the wrong decisions. According to international best practices, such contestants are supposed to be disqualified from the race for engaging in underhand tactics.

Generally, constituents tend to relate the information they receive regarding their leaders to the national actions and their leaders in making voting choices. Constituents tend to discriminate between their individual challenges and government problems and they only bear problems that are part of the political policies or rather the ones the government the government should intervene when thinking about the government. Another way in which voters also make informed political judgments is by differentiating their individual performance in regards to the performance of the government. Generally, the evaluation of the national economic conditions has a greater influence on voting behavior rather than individual economic health. The progress of the national economy is of significance to voters when assessing the presidential performance than their individual economic status hence voters always correlate their individual economic performance to the government only when the changes in their personal financial information correlate to broader economic trends and government policies. Therefore, the most significant aspect is the way voters interpret their individual situations.

Whereas trustees in some cases seem a better way of getting proper representations, the delegates approach stands out as one of the most viable approaches. The delegates are tasked by the electorates directly. They must e accountable to their actions and should be easily approachable whenever the public feels there are issues that require clarification. The voters are at liberty to recall any of the delegates that they feel do not represent their interests fully as may be needed. It is incumbent upon the electoral commission to ensure that they regulate the modes of competition in any political contest by disqualifying those that do not play according to the rules.

Generally, the everyday lives of voters, as well as the information from the media, are interceded by reasoning and anticipations. Therefore, the participation of a constituent in the election of a legislator of a member of the Congress is more than the expression of individual problems and conditions because they differentiate among their own problems and those of the government. Additionally, other factors that can enhance voter information such as campaigns are likely to increase the certainty of voter perceptions even though misconceptions are more likely on the ideas that are fundamental to campaigns. Additionally, constituents always use information shortcuts to evaluate the preference policies of candidates by observing the relationship between the traits of a candidate such as race, ethnicity, religion or gender and localism in relation to real-life behaviors as part of the daily experiences. Generally, constituents take into account the sincerity of a candidate when estimating the preference of a candidate whether the candidate is really concerned about their preferences as voters.

However, voters gain information through various ways hence the argument of Popkin implying that information is picked as a by-product of activities that voters pursue as part of their daily lives. Similarly, the cases of Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee are based on the concept that the main influences of voting decisions are the sociological contexts because the family is the basic unit that determines the interest and preference of an individual in politics. Generally, the moral conceptions of the various affiliations differ; however, the social pressure to conform to various groups drag in the decision of the voter in divergent directions. On the other hand, the level of responsiveness detailed by Bartels is significant because policy responsiveness to the social welfare preference to citizens seems to be limited. The analysis provided by Bartels also implies robust and consistent proof of substantial differences in reactivity to the choices of wealthy and poor citizens. Generally, legislators seem to primarily respond to the preferences of rich people hence enabling for the active political influence of citizens to differ in terms of income hence the concept of income inequalities in the sense that the impact attributed to needy citizens in not only less than that associated to wealthy citizens but also dependably undesirable.

Even though the relationship between the demands of citizens for more social expenditure and the changes in actual spending, there is more that needs to be implemented to achieve a more appealing relationship. Therefore, if members of the Congress can develop a relationship with the constituents more like the delegates or the trustees by taking into consideration the preferences of the constituents and implanting the policies on the basis that do not enhance income disparities. Generally, the type of relationship between the constituents and the members of congress determines the reasoning of the constituents about the system of government. Therefor...