We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Policymaker perceptions of citizen needs: heuristics, accuracy, and partisan differences.
- Authors
BERGAN, DANIEL E.; FITZPATRICK, NATALIE
- Abstract
Do policymaker perceptions reflect actual citizen needs? A vast literature has explored the extent to which policy is responsive to public opinion, but there is little systematic work on policymaker perceptions of social problems. We quantify social problems with a unique dataset of the number of phone calls placed by citizens to a free service that connects Michigan residents to service providers. We combine these data with a survey of local policymakers' perceptions of social problems facing their own city shows, consistent with theories of bounded rationality, that policymakers use heuristics to make judgments about the extent of constituent needs in their city, and that policymaker perceptions reflect the prevalence of needs. However, partisan perceptions of needs diverge, with Democrats consistently perceiving greater needs than Republicans. There is no evidence that policy activity on the needs in the sample is responsive to constituent needs. We conclude with implications for theories of policy making and avenues for future research.
- Subjects
BOUNDED rationality; SOCIAL problems; SOCIAL perception; TELEPHONE calls; TELEPHONE numbers; PUBLIC opinion
- Publication
Behavioural Public Policy, 2024, Vol 8, Issue 3, p519
- ISSN
2398-063X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/bpp.2020.62