Who Influences Whom? Inequality in the Mutual Responsiveness Between Voters and Elites

Recent years have seen a proliferation of research on the connection between voters and elites. One literature explores whether elites’ responsiveness is biased towards affluent voters, but does not allow for reverse causality. Another literature investigates voters’ responsiveness to elite cues, but pays limited attention to potential inequality in such responsiveness. This study combines insights from both literatures by analysing class inequality in elite responsiveness to voters, and vice versa. It does so by using detailed time-series data on citizens’ preferences and party positions towards government spending in the Netherlands. Empirical analyses reveal that middle and lower educated citizens seem to exert the strongest influence on parties, while the higher educated adapt their preferences the most in response to party cues. The analysis has important implications for the study of representation and inequality and, more broadly, for the relationship between citizens and elites in established democracies