Inside the Mind of Politicians: Understanding Elected Representatives’ Knowledge of Participatory Mechanisms (and Why it Matters)

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.In the context of the growingexpansion of citizen engagement mechanisms, political elites are one of themain actors influencing the development of institutional participatorymechanisms. In order to undertake this democratic endeavour, elites holdinformation and opinions about these mechanisms, yet their knowledgehas not been thoroughly explored. How familiar are elected representatives with participatory tools? Anddoes this knowledge relate to their understanding of the challenges of citizenparticipation? This article seeks to 1) measure the extent ofelected representatives’ knowledge of participatory mechanisms, 2) uncover thefactors associated with this knowledge, and 3) explore the correlation betweenthis knowledge and their views on the shortcomings of citizen participation. The analysis departs from anonline survey conducted among elected representatives in Spain at the local,regional and national levels. Results indicate distinct levels of knowledgebut, more importantly, they show that knowledge varies with ideology, age and electedrepresentatives’ receptiveness towards citizens’ initiatives and participationin politics. Notably, a link emerges between knowledge and the evaluation of participationchallenges: representatives with greater knowledge are less troubled bycitizens’ capacity and willingness to engage, as well as other effectivenessissues on the governmental side.