The common goal of the researchers and faculty members in our team is to cast light on what has been labelled as the ‘democratic response’, namely the interaction between government and the governed.
Theoretically the relation between public opinion and public policy is self-regulated through a ‘dynamic representation’, in which governments, while seeking to legitimize their policies, try to meet citizens’ expectations. In turn citizens respond to governments by adjusting their preferences, much like a thermostat. This model is based on two key assumptions.
On the one hand, the structure of democratic institutions is assumed to give governments a powerful incentive to account for the preferences expressed by citizens, in particular through elections but also by means of other forms of public participation (collective action by trade unions, non-government organizations, and other interest groups, opinion polls, and/or direct mobilizations). On the other hand, the public is supposed to send signals perceived as relevant by government.
The question of democratic response cuts to the heart of our representations of democracy and political legitimacy, at local and national level, but also at European and international level. Do citizens pay sufficient attention to government actions? To what extent are they aware and capable of guiding government in its exercise of power? What role does government give to public opinion in the decision-making process? To what extent does it shape opinion? What other actors take part in this process, intervening as mediators between the governed and government?
Our team join forces to further this common research programme, which calls for interdisciplinary work. The team mainly consists of political scientists, but also economists, sociologists and specialists in information and communication sciences. It collaborates on a regular basis with lawyers, historians, psycho-sociologists and linguists in Grenoble. All of them take the same empirical approach based on quantitative and qualitative methods.
The Governance team is also involved in two Master School from Sciences Po Grenoble: European and International Studies and Journalism; Management, Opinion Polls and Communication, with the focus on the following five Masters:
Members of Governance contribute to these Master’s degree courses by helping students carrying on surveys, achieving case studies and real-life professional situations in line with the research programme of the team.
Director : Simon Persico
