2025/05/22 by Timothy Hellwig, Lawrence Ezrow, Werner Krause · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Social Policy and Reform Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/01402382.2025.2492460
openalex publication_date 2025/05/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
Responsive government means changes in policy reflect changes in citizen preferences. But which citizens? This study examines that question through the lens of policymakers’ incentives to respond to their supporters, the preferences of which are at odds with those of the mean voter about one-third of the time. The article argues that policymaker incentives depend on the government’s position in policy space. Relative to centrist governments, both vote- and policy-seeking motivations push extreme governments to deliver for their supporters over the electorate at large. Analyses of public opinion surveys and policy outputs across 15 countries over 40 years provide support for this expectation. The viability of a supporter-targeted strategy, however, is not sustainable: findings show extreme governments lose votes when they respond to their supporters. The implication is that policy, and not votes, drives behaviour for non-centrist governments. Study findings advance our understanding of how government extremism matters for opinion–policy linkages.