Across 11 different democracies, politicians share a shockingly pessimistic view: They believe that their voters are uninformed, unreasonable, and short-sighted. In a paper recently published by the American Political Science Review, the University of Calgary political scientist Jack Lucas and his co-authors surveyed 12,000 citizens and conducted face-to-face interviews with nearly 1,000 elected officials. In this wide-ranging study of countries including Australia, Denmark, Germany, and Canada, the researchers find that elected officials and voters diverge wildly. Unlike politicians, voters believe themselves to be policy-oriented, politically knowledgeable, and engaged. On today's episode of Good on Paper, I speak with Lucas about how this research reveals a striking divide between democratically elected officials and the voters who put them into office. Even in countries with extremely varied political systems and demographics, this difference persists, suggesting that something...
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