Resumen de Congruence between voters and representatives in preferences for social policies in Spain

Antonio M. Jaime-Castillo, Xavier Coller

• In some countries public opinion is consistently highly supportive ofredistribution, while policy outcomes do not always produce high levels ofredistribution. According to the political congruence literature this might bedue to a biased representation of policy preferences, as those of high socio-economic status are expected to be better represented in the politicalprocess. To illuminate this conundrum, we analyse congruence in preferencesfor redistribution, public expenditure and taxation in the case of Spain, bydrawing on data from two complementary surveys that collected informationfrom citizens and members of parliament (MPs). We find a high degree ofcongruence in political preferences between citizens and representatives.Moreover, although the preferences of well-educated groups are betterrepresented in the case of taxation, it cannot be argued that there is a ‘pro-rich’ bias in MPs’ preferences.