Politicians' Reading of Public Opinion and its Biases (Hardcover)

Examining 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 presents a paradox of representation. On the one hand, politicians invest enormously in reading public opinion. They are committed to finding out what the people want and public opinion is a key consideration in many of their undertakings. Yet, on the other hand, politicians' perceptions of public opinion are surprisingly inaccurate. Politicians are hardly better at estimating public opinion than ordinary citizens are. Their perceptions are distorted by social projection, in the sense that politicians' own opinion affects their estimations, and on top of that, there seems to be a systematic right-wing bias in these perceptions. The findings imply that one of the main paths to responsive policy-making is flawed. Even though politicians do the best they can to learn about people's preferences, skewed perceptions put them on the wrong track. From a democratic perspective, the central findings of the book are quite sobering. The high hopes that many authors had with regard to politicians' ability to adequately 'consult' or 'sense' public opinion appear to be vain. The book puts forward a plausible driver of the slippage between the public and politics. Politicians are less responsive to people's preferences than they could be, not because they do not want to be responsive but because they base themselves on erroneous public opinion perceptions.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	August 2022
Authors:	Stefaan Walgrave (Professor of Political Science) • Karolin Soontjens (Doctoral Candidate) • Julie Sevenans (Postdoctoral Researcher of Political Science)
Dimensions:	240 x 164 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	240
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-286602-8
Categories:	Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political structure & processes > Political leaders & leadership Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Political control & influence > Public opinion & polls
LSN:	0-19-286602-8
Barcode:	9780192866028

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!