Legislative Congruence across Electoral Systems

Ideological congruence is typically conceptualised as the distance between citizens and their governments. This has created a lively debate within the literature over which type of electoral system performs better in creating ‘ideological congruence’ through minimising the distance between the citizens and their governments, and as such increasing overall representation. However, ideological congruence can also be examined through the overlap between citizens’ policy positions and those of parties within their legislatures, not just parties in government. In this regard, proportional systems are almost universally assumed to be more effective in articulating the electorates’ policy preferences than their majoritarian counterparts. This paper tests this assumption through empirical analysis of legislative congruence between citizens and parties present in their legislatures in 11 countries over 78 elections.