Recently, the concept of congruence is applied continuously as a means for evaluating representation, whereas the implicit assumption is: The higher the congruence the better representation works. Despite of testing new models to explain congruence (Belchior 2012) and the methodological advancements (Golder and Stramski 2010, Kernell 2012), there is lack of exploring the effect of congruence. Thus, I will remain to the underlying assumption of measures of congruence mentioned above and test the normative statement (the higher the congruence, the better representation works) empirically. In doing so, I relate congruence to the evaluation of representation made by the ultimate principal – the citizens. After testing the effects of congruence in terms of the many-to-many relation on citizens’ evaluation of representation on the aggregate level (Dageförde 2013), this paper attempts to test the effects of congruence on the individual level and explores micro-effects on the basis of EES data.
