Chapter 1: Responsiveness and Responsibility

Responsibility is not a choice but a burden. That is the basic intuition that we will put forward in this book. Why would parties embrace a policy that is not preferred by a majority of voters and surrender the electoral chances of their candidates? Electorally unsuccessful but responsible parties, it is said, cultivate brand names today by promising policies that voters may prefer in the future. Patiently, it would seem, they stay the course and wait for voters to come around, hoping their policy proposals will be finally recognized on Election Day. While it may be true that voters are chronically uninformed, upholding predictable but losing positions is for us a nonsensical proposition for office seeking parties.1