Disagreeing with Theoretical Expectations about Democracy: Voters want neither Program Execution nor Responsiveness from Governments and that’s not Partisan either

What do voter want parties to do once they win governmental powers? Departing from the traditional focus on policy preferences, this article focuses on the procedural expectations of voters. Should the government dutifully execute its electoral program, be responsive to the public or adhere to the advice of policy experts? Does it matter whether the voter’s own preferred party is in office or rather its main opponent? Based on an innovative survey of 1.200 Australian voters, this article finds that voters, first and foremost, want policies that experts agree with. Neither responsiveness to the public nor whether the policy matches with the election program have an effect. Furthermore, which party holds the government plays hardly any role, indicating that procedural preferences are not partisan. Thus, extending arguments made within the US context (see Stealth Democracy, Democracy for Realists), this article presents further empirical evidence that contradicts two of the most common theoretical expectations in democracy literature: (a) that voters want governments to stick to their mandate and (b) that voters want more direct influence on governmental decisions.