“Are You Too Busy to Listen Up?” Legislative (Dis)engagement from Constituents in Local Public Meetings

Constituents participate in public meetings to influence the policy-making process. But do officials listen equally to engaged citizens in these meetings? Using non-verbal cues as indicators of listening, this study examines whether the council member and constituent’s race affects how members listen when constituents speak at local government meetings. Measuring positive instances of active listening is notoriously difficult. As such, I rely on indicators of non-attentiveness, such as reading text messages while the constituent is speaking. These constitute valid measures of non-listening or partial listening. Through the analysis of an original dataset generated from video-recordings of council meetings in six Michigan and Texas cities, I find that, to a limited degree, council members are less distracted when their coracial constituents speak than when other constituents speak. Importantly, however, this relationship may depend on the time that has elapsed during the constituent’s speech. The article also discusses the implications of nonverbal communication for citizen perceptions of political efficacy and institutional legitimacy.