To Whom Do People Think Representatives Should Respond: Their District or the Country?

Representatives face clear incentives to respond to district preferences. I report findings from a series of experiments that examine whether the public understands these incentives and rewards representatives who respond to them. The findings show that although many people say they want legislators to prioritize national preferences, when evaluating instances of legislators’ behavior they recognize the institutionally prescribed incentives representatives face and reward legislators who prioritize their districts. I also find that, to the extent that people hold their own legislators to unique standards, these differences are not the product of an expectation that one’s own representative prioritize the district while others prioritize the country. Instead, the differences suggest that people understand that their own legislator is accountable to them, personally, whereas other representatives are not. The findings offer novel insight into the standards people hold representatives to and challenge the notion that people want legislators to reject institutional incentives.