The impact of party-constituent relationships on executive and legislative influence over policymaking

Abstract

In this analysis, we examine the effect of party-voter linkages on executive and legislative influence over policymaking in democracies throughout the world. We expect committees in legislatures with programmatic parties to have more power over the public policymaking process than committees in legislatures with clientelistic parties do. We also expect executives in countries with programmatic parties to have less power over the public policymaking process than executives in countries with clientelistic parties do. Using data from the Varieties of Democracy Dataset and controlling for relevant factors, we find support for our expectations. The results of this paper shed light on how party linkages to constituents can affect executive and legislative influence over policymaking.