Popular democracy fails when citizen preferences only align by coincidence with real power-holders.

Evidence

In any case, normative advocates of populistic democracy may not be enthusiastic about democracy by coincidence, in which ordinary citizens get what they want from government only when they happen to agree with elites or interest groups that are really calling the shots. When push comes to shove, actual influence matters. — Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics, 107

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the concept of ‘democracy by coincidence’ as a distinct empirical category.
• XREF: Directly relevant to the reading purpose: distinguishes rhetoric/semblance from actual instrumentally-measured influence. — connects to: People’s abstract political principles often fail to match their concrete policy preferences — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3748; Majorities of citizens lose when elites and organized interests disagree. — Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics:…, 137; Correlated elite and mass preferences do not reflect citizen influence on policy. — Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics:…, 135 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Correlated elite and mass preferences do not reflect citizen influence on policy. #corroborates (0.85) — Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics, 135
• Majorities of citizens lose when elites and organized interests disagree. #corroborates (0.82) — Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics, 137
• Organized interest-group stances do not substantially track average citizens’ preferences. #corroborates (0.78) — Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics, 76
• People’s abstract political principles often fail to match their concrete policy preferences #expands (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3748
• Democracy minimally requires popular authorization of laws and shared power #qualifies (0.72) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 362