When do citizens trade responsibility for responsiveness in government? In an increasingly
interdependent world, politicians often confront a trade-off between these
objectives. On the one hand, they need to adopt responsible policies that are, for instance,
associated with the commitments of membership of international organizations.
On the other hand, to retain office, they need to be responsive to their electorate.
Recent crises – from the global recession to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the increasing
migratory flows, climate change, and security threats – have contributed to
exacerbating this trade-off, paving the way for either responsive, but ineffective, measures
proposed by populist parties, or efficacious actions, mostly taken by electorally
unaccountable technocratic actors. This paper presents the results of a vignette experiment
conducted among representative samples of French, German, Italian, and Spanish
citizens in 2023. Respondents were asked to evaluate responsible proposals, put forward
by a member of parliament (MP), in five policy areas that experienced recent or
ongoing crises. The vignettes describe scenarios that differed along seven attributes.
The results indicate that approval for a responsible proposal increases in the presence
of international commitments and expert support. MP’s party cohesion over the proposal,
concordance with the party’s electoral manifesto, and public opinion support also
elicit greater approval. Interestingly, the responsible proposal also gets higher approval
ratings when framed in a crisis scenario, suggesting that exogenous shocks or the usage
of a crisis rhetoric can boost voters’ support for responsible policymaking.