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Are poor people poorly heard?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2026

Julie Sevenans Open the ORCID record for Julie Sevenans [Opens in a new window] ,
Awenig Marié ,
Christian Breunig ,
Stefaan Walgrave ,
Karolin Soontjens  and
Rens Vliegenthart
Julie Sevenans*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Awenig Marié
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Christian Breunig
Affiliation:
Department of Politics & Public Administration, University of Konstanz, Belgium
Stefaan Walgrave
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Karolin Soontjens
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Rens Vliegenthart
Affiliation:
Strategic Communication Group, Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands
*
Address for correspondence: Julie Sevenans, Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Belgium; Email: julie.sevenans@uantwerpen.be
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Abstract

A growing body of literature shows that the preferences of poorer groups in society are less well represented than the preferences of the rich. This paper scrutinises one possible explanation of inequality in representation: that politicians hold biased perceptions of what citizens want. We conducted surveys with citizens and politicians in four countries: Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and Germany. Citizens provided their preferences regarding concrete policy proposals, and then politicians estimated these preferences. Comparing politicians’ estimates with the actual preferences of different social groups, the paper shows that politicians’ perceptions are closer to the preferences of the richer than to those of poorer people for issues that matter most for economic inequality: socio‐economic issues. Further, we find that especially right‐wing politicians tend to think about the preferences of richer societal groups when estimating the preferences of their partisan electorates on socio‐economic matters.

Keywords

elected representativesperceptual biaspolitical inequalitypolitical representationsurvey research

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Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Political Research , Volume 64 , Issue 3 , August 2025 , pp. 1326 - 1350
Copyright
Copyright © 2024 European Consortium for Political Research.

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