From a normative standpoint, representation has long been understood to be a dynamic interaction between elected representatives and citizens. However, the relationship has been presented almost exclusively from the perspective of the representatives; by contrast, few studies have addressed what the public thinks about political representation and what citizens expect from their representatives. (Dis)trust in political institutions, recent studies argue, is as much affected by their preferences with regard to the representative process as by their policy preferences. A gap between citizens’ expectations and representatives’ roles will fuel public discontent with politics. But we know little as to (1) how citizens’ policy and process preferences are interrelated, and (2) how both are affected by voter sophistication. We combine data on the part of voters from the 2014 Election Study and data on the part of candidates from the 2014 Candidate Study in Belgium to address these questions.
