Resumen de Ruling Majority and Opposition: How Parliamentary Position Affects the Attitudes of Political Representatives

Mikael Gilljam, David Karlsson

• The question posed in this article is how parliamentary position affects the attitudes of political representatives: Do attitudes towards democratic game rules and policy content differ between members of the ruling majority and the opposition? And if there is such an effect, what could be the possible causal mechanisms? The data derive from a unique survey of all 13,044 councillors in the 290 municipalities in Sweden. The results show that, within all political parties, opposition members are more positive towards participatory democracy, while majority members favour representative democracy. Furthermore, being in office de-radicalises representatives on the left–right scale, while being out of office has a radicalising effect.