One moment, please: Can the speed and quality of political contact affect democratic health?
Author | Nikki Soo,James Weinberg,Katharine Dommett |
DOI | 10.1177/1369148120919683 |
Published date | 01 August 2020 |
Date | 01 August 2020 |
Subject Matter | Original Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148120919683
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2020, Vol. 22(3) 460 –484
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148120919683
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One moment, please: Can
the speed and quality of
political contact affect
democratic health?
Nikki Soo , James Weinberg
and Katharine Dommett
Abstract
Contact between politicians and their constituents is the cornerstone of democracies globally but
an area of scholarship that remains relatively underdeveloped. Political contact can help convey
authority, provide legitimacy and facilitate governance. This article goes beyond the assumption that
representatives need to communicate more with the public and suggests, instead, that the quality of
contact matters. Focusing on four processes by which citizens can contact their representatives
(face-to-face, by letter, email or social media), we employ an experimental vignette methodology
to test whether the character and timeliness of politicians’ responses to citizen communication
affects two indicators of democratic health: (a) the latter’s satisfaction with political contact and
(b) their likelihood to re-contact representatives. Our findings provide evidence that personalised
communication and to a smaller extent, speed of response, can influence citizen satisfaction
and their likelihood of re-engagement. This suggests politicians can improve these indicators of
democratic health by adjusting the style of political contact and communication.
Keywords
communication, engagement, political contact, politicians, representation
Introduction
Political contact is an inherent feature of many democratic systems around the globe and
describes the interaction between representatives and citizens. An enduring feature of
democracy, political contact helps to convey authority, provide legitimacy and facilitate
governance. Evident in a variety of different forms, from casual encounters on the street
to formal consultation processes, representatives and those they represent can interact in
different ways and mediums. And yet, while an essential feature of many representative
Department of Politics, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Corresponding author:
Nikki Soo, School of Journalism, Media, and Culture, Cardiff University, 2 Central Square, Cardiff CF10
1FS, UK.
Email: soos1@cardiff.ac.uk
919683BPI0010.1177/1369148120919683The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsSoo et al.
research-article2020
Original Article
Soo et al. 461
systems, we currently know little about the conditions in which such contact is viewed
favourably (or not), and whether the content and media of said contact actually matters.
In the context of growing evidence of political discontent and negative public views about
representatives and representative processes (Grayling, 2017; Hay, 2007; Norris, 2011;
Runciman, 2018; Seyd, 2015), this is a significant gap in our understanding of democratic
representation. At the same time, this is one aspect of politics where representatives have
a degree of control. They can, to some extent, orchestrate the way political contact is
conducted, suggesting that information on what citizens’ think about conduct could be of
value to politicians.
In this article, we go beyond the assumption that representatives need to communicate
more with the public to consider the significance of the quality of contact between gover-
nors and governed. We undertake a micro-level analysis of political representation by
exploring the significance of variations in the style and format of political contact for two
measures of democratic health: citizens’ satisfaction with political contact and their likeli-
hood of re-engaging with a representative about substantive policy issues. On the one
hand, this matters for our collective understanding of when, why and how specific inter-
personal elements of politics might ameliorate the mutual withdrawal of state and citizens
from one another. On the other hand, we believe this study has direct practical applicabil-
ity for politicians, who are the subject of public criticisms and seek potential remedies in
a job where control is fleeting but the stresses and strains are many. By studying the
micro-dynamics of everyday political contact, we unite supply- and demand-side expla-
nations of representation to address these aims.
Looking in detail at four processes by which citizens can contact their representa-
tives (face-to-face, by letter, email or social media), we use an experimental vignette
methodology (EVM) to test whether the character and timeliness of politicians’
responses affected citizens views. Using a diverse sample of 1500 members of the UK
public, we find that politicians can alter and adjust their political communications to
(a) improve public satisfaction and (b) increase the likelihood of future contact
between politicians and the public. These results hold even after controlling for con-
textual and socio-demographic variables. We also find that personalised and interac-
tive styles of political communication may mitigate the negative impact of pre-existing
anti-political sentiment on participants’ satisfaction with politicians. These findings
mark an important contribution to our understanding of political conduct and repre-
sentation, but also provide specific recommendations to politicians on how to improve
constituent communication and satisfaction.
Political contact in existing research
The idea of democratic representation is ancient and complex (Pitkin, 1967). As
Mansbridge (2003: 515) noted, ‘there is more than one way to be represented legitimately
in a democracy’, a truism that has fostered wide-ranging debate about the relationships
between citizens and those who seek to represent. Operating as a ‘principal-agent rela-
tionship’ (Castiglione and Warren, 2006: 1), it is widely recognised that representatives
face formidable challenges in attempting to channel the wishes of a diverse and often
capricious public into politics (Kölln, 2015: 610; Urbinati and Warren, 2008: 389). In
addressing this dilemma, many scholars have explored the importance of interactions
between representatives and the represented. Dobson (2014: 3), for example, has stressed
the importance of listening by arguing that:
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