Exploring Congruence between voters and candidates in Greece

The essential role of political representation in a representative democracy lies in the alignment between policy makers and the electorate. The concept of congruence, which involves the harmony between the policy positions of voters and candidates, is a crucial aspect of this representation. Traditionally, the study of congruence involved comparing voter attitudes with either opinion polls or expert panels' assessments of politicians' attitudes or party positions. However, in 2017, Andreadis, I. and Stavrakakis, Y., introduced a novel approach, which entails utilizing surveys of elected parliament members or candidates and subsequently, numerous recent studies have adopted this approach. The aim of the proposed paper is to examine the level of congruence between politicians and voters and their interaction with voting behavior. Relying on the data of 2023 Hellenic National Election Study (ELNES2023) and in line with the 2023 Hellenic Candidate Study (ELCS2023) we study congruence between the voters’ and candidates’ policy position. In this research paper, Greece serves as a case study, nevertheless, our efforts contribute to the broader comparative research on congruence and further advance the collaborative projects we are part at.