Politicians' reading of public opinion and its biases / Stefaan Walgrave, Karolin Soontjens, Julie Sevenans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walgrave, Stefaan, 1966- author.

Sevenans, Julie, author.

Soontjens, Karolin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public opinion--Political aspects.

Public opinion.

Representative government and representation.

Politicians.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 pages)

Place of Publication:

London, England ; New York, New York : Oxford University Press, [2022]

Summary:

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 presents a paradox of representation.

Contents:

Cover

Titlepage

Copyright

Preface

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Introduction

1 Reading and Perceiving Public Opinion as a Mechanism of Representation

Part I POLITICIANS' READING OF PUBLIC OPINION

2 Ambivalent Attitudes toward Public Opinion

3 The Impact of Public Opinion on Political Action

4 The Daily Preoccupation with Reading Public Opinion

5 Confidence and Doubts about Reading Public Opinion

Part II INACCURACY AND BIAS IN POLITICIANS' PERCEPTIONS OF PUBLIC OPINION

6 Measuring Accuracy and Bias of Public Opinion Perceptions

7 The Right-wing Bias in Politicians' Collective Public Opinion Perceptions

8 Inaccuracy of Politicians' Individual Public Opinion Perceptions and the Difference between Good and Bad Raters

9 Projection and Information as Explanations for the Perceptual Bias

Conclusion: Lost in Representation

References

Appendix

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 198-206) and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Walgrave, Stefaan Politicians' Reading of Public Opinion and Its Biases

ISBN:

0-19-195676-7

0-19-269086-8

0-19-269087-6