Wouter Schakel
Biographic Data
| ID | 336344 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wouter Schakel |
| GIVEN NAMES | Wouter |
| FAMILY NAME | Schakel |
| SIGNATURE | SCHAKEL W |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Amsterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5064-2920 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 267 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
How political and social constituent traits affect the responsiveness of legislators: A Comparative Field Experiment
A growing body of literature investigates whether legislators show biases in their constituency communication contingent upon constituent traits. However, we know little about whether and how findings of unequal responsiveness generalize across countries (beyond the United States) and across different traits. We address both issues using a pre‐registered comparative field experiment conducted in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, in…
Poor choices? Examining the electoral connection behind unequal policy representation
Research on representation consistently shows that high‐income voters see more of their preferred policies implemented than less affluent citizens. However, the mechanisms behind this unequal policy representation remain unclear. This paper examines how voter behaviour, particularly the alignment between vote choices and policy outcomes, contributes to this disparity. Using a large dataset that spans close to 300,000 respondents across 32 Europea…
The economic and cultural dimensions of unequal policy representation
Many scholars have argued that policymaking in Western democracies is biased toward high-income citizens, thereby violating fundamental ideals of political equality. However, studies have paid less attention to other potential sources of unequal representation besides income. In this study, we compare the role of income with that of education. Using an original data set of policy changes and public preferences spanning 43 countries, we find that …
A Man’s World? The Policy Representation of Women and Men in a Comparative Perspective
Are the preferences of women and men unequally represented in public policies? This simple yet fundamental question has remained largely unexplored in the fast-growing fields of women’s representation and inequality in the opinion-policy link. Our study analyzes gender biases in policy representation using an original dataset covering 43 countries and four decades, with citizens’ preferences regarding more than 4,000 country-year policies linked …
Unequal Democracies: Public Policy, Responsiveness, and Redistribution in an Era of Rising Economic Inequality
While economic inequality has risen in every affluent democracy in North America and Western Europe, the last three decades have also been characterized by falling or stagnating levels of state-led economic redistribution. Why have democratically accountable governments not done more to distribute top-income shares to citizens with low- and middle-income? Unequal Democracies offers answers to this question, bringing together contributions that fo…
Should we conduct correspondence study field experiments with political elites
Correspondence study field experiments with political elites are a recent addition to legislative studies research, in which unsolicited emails are sent to elites to gauge their responsiveness. In this article, we discuss their ethical implications. We advance from the viewpoint that correspondence study field experiments involve trade-offs between costs and benefits that need to be carefully weighted. We elaborate this argument with two contribu…
Ongelijke politieke vertegenwoordiging van opleidingsgroepen in Nederland
Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community
The political representation of left-nationalist voters
Embedded liberalism or embedded nationalism? How welfare states affect anti-globalisation nationalism in party platforms
In industrialised democracies, welfare state provisions have offsetting implications for anti-globalisation nationalism, central to the position taking of populist radical-right parties. On the one hand, social protection has an ‘embedded liberalism’ effect, mitigating economic insecurities associated with globalisation and thereby dampening anti-globalisation nationalism. On the other hand, social protection has an ‘embedded nationalism’ effect,…
Understanding unequal representation
Income and class biases in political representation have attracted a great deal of scholarly attention in recent years. The reasons are understandable: since the 1980s, very few democratically elected governments in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) undertook new initiatives to compensate low- and middle-income citizens for the unequal rise of top-income shares and concentration of wealth. Instead, redistribution ac…
The party road to representation: Unequal responsiveness in party platforms
This paper explores a major road to substantive representation in democracies, by clarifying whether demands of rich and poor citizens are taken up in the electoral platforms of political parties. Doing so constitutes a substantial broadening and deepening of our understanding of substantive representation – broadening the countries, issue‐areas and years that form the empirical basis for judging whether democracies manifest unequal representatio…
Degrees of influence: Educational inequality in policy representation
Education plays an important role in the political, social and economic divisions that have recently characterised Western Europe. Despite the many analyses of education and its political consequences, however, previous research has not investigated whether government policy caters more to the preferences of the higher educated than to the preferences of the lower educated. We address this question using an original dataset of public opinion and …
Unequal policy responsiveness in the Netherlands
Scholars have long recognized that equality in policy responsiveness is potentially undermined by the existence of economic inequality. However, there is still a lack of empirical research testing whether and how this actually occurs, especially outside of the USA. This study takes up the question whether unequal representation also exists in a country that is in some ways a least-likely case, namely the Netherlands. It does so by linking public …
Real but Unequal Representation in Welfare State Reform
Scholars have long debated whether welfare policymaking in industrialized democracies is responsive to citizen preferences and whether such policymaking is more responsive to rich than to poor citizens. Debate has been hampered, however, by difficulties in matching data on attitudes toward particular policies to data on changes in the generosity of actual policies. This article uses better, more targeted measures of policy change that allow more …
Ideological congruence and socio-economic inequality
This study examines whether or not political representation in the Netherlands is biased toward the rich and higher educated by comparing the political orientations of members of parliament to those of the electorate. The analyses reveal stark differences in the representation of different socio-economic groups. The political views of elected national representatives are far more similar to those of rich, higher educated citizens than to those wi…
Unequal policy responsiveness in the Netherlands
Scholars have long recognized that equality in policy responsiveness is potentially undermined by the existence of economic inequality. However, there is still a lack of empirical research testing whether and how this actually occurs, especially outside of the USA. This study takes up the question whether unequal representation also exists in a country that is in some ways a least-likely case, namely the Netherlands. It does so by linking public …
Ideological congruence and socio-economic inequality
This study examines whether or not political representation in the Netherlands is biased toward the rich and higher educated by comparing the political orientations of members of parliament to those of the electorate. The analyses reveal stark differences in the representation of different socio-economic groups. The political views of elected national representatives are far more similar to those of rich, higher educated citizens than to those wi…
Degrees of influence: Educational inequality in policy representation
Education plays an important role in the political, social and economic divisions that have recently characterised Western Europe. Despite the many analyses of education and its political consequences, however, previous research has not investigated whether government policy caters more to the preferences of the higher educated than to the preferences of the lower educated. We address this question using an original dataset of public opinion and …
Real but Unequal Representation in Welfare State Reform
Scholars have long debated whether welfare policymaking in industrialized democracies is responsive to citizen preferences and whether such policymaking is more responsive to rich than to poor citizens. Debate has been hampered, however, by difficulties in matching data on attitudes toward particular policies to data on changes in the generosity of actual policies. This article uses better, more targeted measures of policy change that allow more …
Understanding unequal representation
Income and class biases in political representation have attracted a great deal of scholarly attention in recent years. The reasons are understandable: since the 1980s, very few democratically elected governments in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) undertook new initiatives to compensate low- and middle-income citizens for the unequal rise of top-income shares and concentration of wealth. Instead, redistribution ac…
A Man’s World? The Policy Representation of Women and Men in a Comparative Perspective
Are the preferences of women and men unequally represented in public policies? This simple yet fundamental question has remained largely unexplored in the fast-growing fields of women’s representation and inequality in the opinion-policy link. Our study analyzes gender biases in policy representation using an original dataset covering 43 countries and four decades, with citizens’ preferences regarding more than 4,000 country-year policies linked …
The party road to representation: Unequal responsiveness in party platforms
This paper explores a major road to substantive representation in democracies, by clarifying whether demands of rich and poor citizens are taken up in the electoral platforms of political parties. Doing so constitutes a substantial broadening and deepening of our understanding of substantive representation – broadening the countries, issue‐areas and years that form the empirical basis for judging whether democracies manifest unequal representatio…
Should we conduct correspondence study field experiments with political elites
Correspondence study field experiments with political elites are a recent addition to legislative studies research, in which unsolicited emails are sent to elites to gauge their responsiveness. In this article, we discuss their ethical implications. We advance from the viewpoint that correspondence study field experiments involve trade-offs between costs and benefits that need to be carefully weighted. We elaborate this argument with two contribu…
The political representation of left-nationalist voters
Embedded liberalism or embedded nationalism? How welfare states affect anti-globalisation nationalism in party platforms
In industrialised democracies, welfare state provisions have offsetting implications for anti-globalisation nationalism, central to the position taking of populist radical-right parties. On the one hand, social protection has an ‘embedded liberalism’ effect, mitigating economic insecurities associated with globalisation and thereby dampening anti-globalisation nationalism. On the other hand, social protection has an ‘embedded nationalism’ effect,…
The economic and cultural dimensions of unequal policy representation
Many scholars have argued that policymaking in Western democracies is biased toward high-income citizens, thereby violating fundamental ideals of political equality. However, studies have paid less attention to other potential sources of unequal representation besides income. In this study, we compare the role of income with that of education. Using an original data set of policy changes and public preferences spanning 43 countries, we find that …
How political and social constituent traits affect the responsiveness of legislators: A Comparative Field Experiment
A growing body of literature investigates whether legislators show biases in their constituency communication contingent upon constituent traits. However, we know little about whether and how findings of unequal responsiveness generalize across countries (beyond the United States) and across different traits. We address both issues using a pre‐registered comparative field experiment conducted in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, in…
Poor choices? Examining the electoral connection behind unequal policy representation
Research on representation consistently shows that high‐income voters see more of their preferred policies implemented than less affluent citizens. However, the mechanisms behind this unequal policy representation remain unclear. This paper examines how voter behaviour, particularly the alignment between vote choices and policy outcomes, contributes to this disparity. Using a large dataset that spans close to 300,000 respondents across 32 Europea…
Ideological congruence and socio-economic inequality
This study examines whether or not political representation in the Netherlands is biased toward the rich and higher educated by comparing the political orientations of members of parliament to those of the electorate. The analyses reveal stark differences in the representation of different socio-economic groups. The political views of elected national representatives are far more similar to those of rich, higher educated citizens than to those wi…
Real but Unequal Representation in Welfare State Reform
Scholars have long debated whether welfare policymaking in industrialized democracies is responsive to citizen preferences and whether such policymaking is more responsive to rich than to poor citizens. Debate has been hampered, however, by difficulties in matching data on attitudes toward particular policies to data on changes in the generosity of actual policies. This article uses better, more targeted measures of policy change that allow more …
Degrees of influence: Educational inequality in policy representation
Education plays an important role in the political, social and economic divisions that have recently characterised Western Europe. Despite the many analyses of education and its political consequences, however, previous research has not investigated whether government policy caters more to the preferences of the higher educated than to the preferences of the lower educated. We address this question using an original dataset of public opinion and …
Unequal policy responsiveness in the Netherlands
Scholars have long recognized that equality in policy responsiveness is potentially undermined by the existence of economic inequality. However, there is still a lack of empirical research testing whether and how this actually occurs, especially outside of the USA. This study takes up the question whether unequal representation also exists in a country that is in some ways a least-likely case, namely the Netherlands. It does so by linking public …
Ongelijke politieke vertegenwoordiging van opleidingsgroepen in Nederland
Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community
The political representation of left-nationalist voters
Embedded liberalism or embedded nationalism? How welfare states affect anti-globalisation nationalism in party platforms
In industrialised democracies, welfare state provisions have offsetting implications for anti-globalisation nationalism, central to the position taking of populist radical-right parties. On the one hand, social protection has an ‘embedded liberalism’ effect, mitigating economic insecurities associated with globalisation and thereby dampening anti-globalisation nationalism. On the other hand, social protection has an ‘embedded nationalism’ effect,…
Understanding unequal representation
Income and class biases in political representation have attracted a great deal of scholarly attention in recent years. The reasons are understandable: since the 1980s, very few democratically elected governments in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) undertook new initiatives to compensate low- and middle-income citizens for the unequal rise of top-income shares and concentration of wealth. Instead, redistribution ac…
The party road to representation: Unequal responsiveness in party platforms
This paper explores a major road to substantive representation in democracies, by clarifying whether demands of rich and poor citizens are taken up in the electoral platforms of political parties. Doing so constitutes a substantial broadening and deepening of our understanding of substantive representation – broadening the countries, issue‐areas and years that form the empirical basis for judging whether democracies manifest unequal representatio…
Unequal Democracies: Public Policy, Responsiveness, and Redistribution in an Era of Rising Economic Inequality
While economic inequality has risen in every affluent democracy in North America and Western Europe, the last three decades have also been characterized by falling or stagnating levels of state-led economic redistribution. Why have democratically accountable governments not done more to distribute top-income shares to citizens with low- and middle-income? Unequal Democracies offers answers to this question, bringing together contributions that fo…
Should we conduct correspondence study field experiments with political elites
Correspondence study field experiments with political elites are a recent addition to legislative studies research, in which unsolicited emails are sent to elites to gauge their responsiveness. In this article, we discuss their ethical implications. We advance from the viewpoint that correspondence study field experiments involve trade-offs between costs and benefits that need to be carefully weighted. We elaborate this argument with two contribu…
A Man’s World? The Policy Representation of Women and Men in a Comparative Perspective
Are the preferences of women and men unequally represented in public policies? This simple yet fundamental question has remained largely unexplored in the fast-growing fields of women’s representation and inequality in the opinion-policy link. Our study analyzes gender biases in policy representation using an original dataset covering 43 countries and four decades, with citizens’ preferences regarding more than 4,000 country-year policies linked …
How political and social constituent traits affect the responsiveness of legislators: A Comparative Field Experiment
A growing body of literature investigates whether legislators show biases in their constituency communication contingent upon constituent traits. However, we know little about whether and how findings of unequal responsiveness generalize across countries (beyond the United States) and across different traits. We address both issues using a pre‐registered comparative field experiment conducted in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, in…
Poor choices? Examining the electoral connection behind unequal policy representation
Research on representation consistently shows that high‐income voters see more of their preferred policies implemented than less affluent citizens. However, the mechanisms behind this unequal policy representation remain unclear. This paper examines how voter behaviour, particularly the alignment between vote choices and policy outcomes, contributes to this disparity. Using a large dataset that spans close to 300,000 respondents across 32 Europea…
The economic and cultural dimensions of unequal policy representation
Many scholars have argued that policymaking in Western democracies is biased toward high-income citizens, thereby violating fundamental ideals of political equality. However, studies have paid less attention to other potential sources of unequal representation besides income. In this study, we compare the role of income with that of education. Using an original data set of policy changes and public preferences spanning 43 countries, we find that …
Political science (15 works) · Politics (14 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Economics (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Political economy (10 works) · Representation (politics (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (8 works)