Politicians' Reading of Public Opinion and Its Biases /

This book examines a central assumption widely accepted as being crucial in making democracy work, that politicians form a more or less accurate image of public opinion and take that perception into account when representing citizens. Politicians' Reading of Public Opinion and its Biases presen...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Walgrave, Stefaan, 1966- (Author), Soontjens, Karolin (Author), Sevenans, Julie (Author)
Format:	eBook
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2022]
Subjects:	Representative government and representation. Public opinion > Political aspects. Politicians. Gouvernement représentatif. Opinion publique > Aspect politique. Politiciens. politicians. Diplomacy. International Relations. Political Process. Leadership. Public opinion > Political aspects Representative government and representation Sociology & anthropology. Society. Electronic books.
Online Access:	Connect to the full text of this electronic book

Table of Contents:

Reading and perceiving public opinion as a mechanism of representation
Politicians' reading of public opinion. Ambivalent attitudes toward public opinion
The impact of public opinion on political action
The daily preoccupation with reading public opinion
Confidence and doubts about reading public opinion
Inaccuracy and bias in politicians' perceptions of public opinion. Measuring accuracy and bias of public opinion perceptions
The right-wing bias in politicians' collective public opinion perceptions
Inaccuracy of politicians' individual public opinion perceptions and the difference between good and bad raters
Projection and information as explanations for the perceptual bias - Conclusion : Lost in representation.