Government of the People, by the Elite, for the Rich? Unequal Responsiveness in Germany

Political representation requires responsiveness. In a democracy, Hanna Pitikin insisted, government decisions should not frustrate or resist the people’s will for a long period of time without good reasons – and citizens have to be considered as equals. In contrast to this democratic ideal, numerous empirical studies have shown that US politics is heavily tilted in favor of the wealthy, as political decisions tend to reflect the preferences of the rich, while largely ignoring those of the poor and middle classes. These findings have prompted a lively debate about potential mechanisms that cause this pattern of unequal responsiveness. Existing studies suggest that specific characteristics of the electoral system are a major explanatory factor ‒ in particular, private donations and campaign financing. We build on these study but focus for the first time on an entirely different case. In this article, we ask whether similar patterns of unequal responsiveness are discernible in Germany, which is not only a more egalitarian country but also differs in the electoral system. We analyze an original dataset of more than 800 survey questions posed between 1980 and 2013. The questions deal with specific political decisions debated at the time and cover a broad range of politically relevant topics. Our results show a notable association between political decisions and the opinions of the rich, but none or even a negative association for the poor. Representational inequality in Germany thus resembles the findings for the US case, despite its very different institutional setting. Against this background, we conclude by discussing potential mechanisms of unequal responsiveness.