How citizens hold government accountable in democratic systems is one of the fundamental questions of political science and has long been of interest to scholars of public opinion. Accountability for the performance of government requires individuals to make accurate evaluations of the effects of policy decisions, and to trace responsibility for policy decisions to the appropriate politician or political party. In this paper, we study the question of democratic accountability in the context of the health insurance marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act. Not surprisingly, how citizens evaluate the state of the world and locate responsibility has less to do with marketplace performance, and much more to do with political allegiance. However, we theorize and find evidence that supports two substantial exceptions to the overwhelming role of partisan identification: Both political independents and those with personal policy experience are capable of linking objective conditions with broader political assessments. These findings have important implications for our understanding of democratic accountability and for the design of public policies in a federal system.

中文翻译：

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政策和政治分歧之处：ACA中的意识，评估和归因

公民如何使政府对民主制度负责是政治学的基本问题之一，长期以来一直受到舆论学者的关注。对政府绩效的问责制要求个人对政策决策的效果做出准确的评估，并将政策决策的责任追溯到适当的政客或政党。在本文中，我们研究了根据《平价医疗法案》建立的健康保险市场中的民主责任制问题。毫不奇怪，公民评估世界状况和确定责任的方式与市场表现的关系较小，而与政治效忠的关系更大。然而，我们进行理论分析，找到支持党派认同压倒性作用的两个重大例外的证据：政治独立人士和具有个人政策经验的人士都能够将客观条件与更广泛的政治评估联系起来。这些发现对于我们对民主问责制的理解以及联邦系统中公共政策的设计都具有重要意义。