Competition and Representation

Synchronization of Two Democratic Processes

Abstract

Democracy in the modern age has been described and understood in association with its two distinct, and equally important, political processes: competition at the elite and representation at the mass level. Although they both are obvious ingredients for the working of democracy, many years’of academic research have not fully advanced our understanding of how these two processes interact. In this paper, we explore what goes on at the nexus of competition and representation, by systematically combining the elite-level and mass-level behavioral findings drawn from Japan. Descriptive statistics together with more elaborate statistical analyses suggest that organized groups’ efforts of reaching out to general voters affect the latter’s sense of political efficacy. Moreover, we find that the pattern of this behavioral synchronization between organized groups and voters is consistent over an extended period of time.