The Work by Daniel Butler and David Nickerson - Essay Example

The other work by Daniel Butler and David Nickerson takes a different perspective where it covers the question of whether the legislators are aware of the opinions of their constituents. The experiment to determine this was cautiously chosen so that the accuracy could not be affected by external factors. The experiment was conducted in a 2008 New Mexico special legislative session in which the constituent’s opinions on one-time budget spending were forwarded to their legislators. The legislatures who received the opinions of their respective constituents were more likely to vote in favor of the opinions of the constituents. This implies that raising awareness of the opinions of the constituents could affect the representation. One of the shortcomings of the study is that it does not assess other groups that may influence the decision taken by the legislator such as parties and lobbyists.

The important part that I feel has not been answered is whether legislators should be trustees or delegates. From a personal viewpoint, they should be trustees because they are not different from institutional board members. This is because shareholders elect the board members to help in leading the company and the legislators are elected to do the same but for the country.