Agentit kansan asialla?

Maanviljelijöiden, työntekijöiden ja yrittäjien etujen välittyminen poliittiseen päätöksentekoon

Authors

• Pauli Forma

Abstract

This article examines whether and to what extent class interests are mediated from the for grassroots level to the level of political decision-making. Theoretically, adverse selec-tion and moral hazard problems are identified to have serious implications to the mediation process. Furthermore, the representation role adopted by the members of parliament is assumed to be significant in the mediation of interests. Attitudes of the candidates of the 1995 parliamentary elections and those of the citizens are compared empirically. The results indicate that the attitudes of the citizens are not necessarily the same as those of their representatives, i.e., the mediation of interests is not self-evident. A more detailed analysis shows that the candidates’ gender, education and the adopted representation role can be important as regards the conformity of the attitudes of the candidates with those of the citizens. This finding indicates that some agents are working for the people better than others.