Abstract

CANTU RAMOS, Gabriela Aída. Democratic Responsiveness: Different Approaches to a Concept with Ample Potential. Polít. gob [online]. 2019, vol.26, n.2, pp.237-259.  Epub June 26, 2020. ISSN 1665-2037.

After the transitional processes ended, new democracies faced challenges regarding the consolidation of political institutions and processes. This opened a pathway for a new research agenda: the quality of democracy. These studies re-opened the debate around a key concept in Political Science: responsiveness, which refers to a government’s capacity to attend or respond to its citizens’ needs or preferences. However, there are different theoretical approaches to this concept beyond the democratic quality research agenda. Based on this, this essay’s main objective is to offer the reader a broad, complete and clear picture of the different analytical perspectives around the idea of government responsiveness. Additionally, a discussion about the relation of the concept of responsiveness with other close concepts that might be confused with, such as: representation, accountability and responsibility is presented. Finally, the essay offers a review of the different ways responsiveness has been measured and analyzed empirically and also some reflections around the limitations of the concept.

Keywords : responsiveness; democracy; perspectives on responsiveness; representation; responsibility; accountability.

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