Affiliation:
1. Department of Political Science, Research Group Media, Movements & Politics (M2P), University of Antwerp, Deurne, Belgium
Abstract
Politicians learning about public opinion and responding to their resulting perceptions is one key way via which responsive policy-making comes about. Despite the strong normative importance of politicians’ understanding of public opinion, empirical evidence on how politicians learn about these opinions in the first place is scant. Drawing on survey data collected from almost 900 incumbent politicians in five countries, this study presents unique descriptive evidence on which public opinion sources politicians deem most useful. The findings show that politicians deem direct citizen contact and information from traditional news media as the most useful sources of public opinion information, while social media cues and polls are considered much less useful. These findings matter for substantive representation, and for citizens’ feeling of being represented.
Funder
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Subject
Political Science and International Relations,Public Administration,Sociology and Political Science
Cited by
19 articles.
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1. Second phase: The activation stage;The Normalization of the Radical Right;2024-09-02
2. First phase: The latency equilibrium;The Normalization of the Radical Right;2024-09-02
3. Reported vote: An observational measure of political stigma;The Normalization of the Radical Right;2024-09-02
4. Dedication;The Normalization of the Radical Right;2024-09-02
5. Additional materials and analyses;The Normalization of the Radical Right;2024-09-02