State Democratic Representation in United States

State Policy and Democratic Representation

Saundra K. Schneider and William G. Jacoby, in the chapter “State Policy and Democratic Representation” of the Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government, offers some insight and critically assesses the situation and current state of scholarship on the topic. The following is a summary:The authors in this chapter emphasize state policy variation with respect to democratic representation of public interests. They examine the literature concerning the connection between public opinion and the actions of government officials and institutions. The authors consider the various approaches that have been employed in the scholarly literature to measure public opinion in the states. They also explore the ways that researchers have captured state-level public policy in empirical indicators. The authors then discuss strategies for representing the relationship between state opinion and policy, as well as various factors that may mediate the connection between the two. In this process the authors cover the existing literature and also highlight unresolved issues and potential future directions for scholarly research.

Further Reading

• “State Policy and Democratic Representation”, The Oxford Handbook of American Politics