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Pathways to Substantive Representation: Policy Congruence and Policy Knowledge Among Canadian Local Politicians.

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Title: Pathways to Substantive Representation: Policy Congruence and Policy Knowledge Among Canadian Local Politicians.
Authors: Lucas, Jack (AUTHOR), Sheffer, Lior (AUTHOR), Loewen, Peter John (AUTHOR)
Source: Political Behavior. Sep2025, Vol. 47 Issue 3, p1113-1132. 20p.
Subjects: Political elites, Political knowledge, Public opinion, Democracy, Canadian federal government, Representative government, Political participation
Geographic Terms: Canada
Abstract: In recent years, new data and methods have reinvigorated research on two central elements of elite political behavior: politicians' congruence with and knowledge of citizens' opinions. Here, we survey over 700 elected officials in Canada to investigate and quantify the relationship between congruence (i.e. politicians' alignment with constituents' attitudes) and knowledge (i.e. politicians' accurate perception of constituents' attitudes) as pathways to substantive representation. We find that they are strongly related: congruent politicians also tend to have accurate perceptions of their constituents' opinions. Individual and contextual correlates of success on each of the two pathways are very similar, but politicians' performance varies considerably across policy issues. We discuss three main implications of our findings: congruence and perceptual accuracy as components of a single pathway to substantive representation; the need to better understand variation in congruence and perceptual accuracy across policy issues and policy-related factors; and the quality of substantive representation in contemporary democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Political Behavior is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Political+Behavior%22">Political Behavior</searchLink>. Sep2025, Vol. 47 Issue 3, p1113-1132. 20p.
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  Data: In recent years, new data and methods have reinvigorated research on two central elements of elite political behavior: politicians' congruence with and knowledge of citizens' opinions. Here, we survey over 700 elected officials in Canada to investigate and quantify the relationship between congruence (i.e. politicians' alignment with constituents' attitudes) and knowledge (i.e. politicians' accurate perception of constituents' attitudes) as pathways to substantive representation. We find that they are strongly related: congruent politicians also tend to have accurate perceptions of their constituents' opinions. Individual and contextual correlates of success on each of the two pathways are very similar, but politicians' performance varies considerably across policy issues. We discuss three main implications of our findings: congruence and perceptual accuracy as components of a single pathway to substantive representation; the need to better understand variation in congruence and perceptual accuracy across policy issues and policy-related factors; and the quality of substantive representation in contemporary democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Political Behavior is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Value: 10.1007/s11109-024-09982-2
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        Text: English
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        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Political knowledge
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      – SubjectFull: Public opinion
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      – SubjectFull: Democracy
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      – SubjectFull: Canadian federal government
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      – SubjectFull: Canada
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              M: 09
              Text: Sep2025
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