In its modern manifestation, democracy is the process of channeling a great amount and variety of public opinion into a smaller, more homogeneous number of elected representatives charged with carrying out the plurality's preferences. This perspective is consistent with that of “responsible party government,” in which voters (principals) choose among parties (agents) offering alternative policy packages (Adams 2001; Schmitt and Thomassen 1999; Converse and Pierce 1986; Dalton 1985). From such a perspective, perhaps the ultimate test of programmatic party structuration lies in the extent to which party elites and party supporters correspond across issue and ideological divides or, in other words, in the degree of representation that exists within the system. While in the previous two chapters we have explored the amounts of programmatic structure present in each case among partisan elites, in this chapter we explore how the different configurations we have described at the elite level relate to the levels of programmatic linkage between citizens and partisan elites. This is particularly relevant because in theory we could imagine party systems that have relatively high levels of programmatic structure at the elite level but which do not seek or simply are unable to structure programmatic ties to voters. If this scenario were to hold true, it would jeopardize the causal inferences we draw concerning programmatic structuration in coming chapters.