The POLPOP I project is a transnational collaboration examining the perceptual accuracy of politicians in five countries. Adequate representation by political elites entails a more or less accurate perception of what the public cares about and wants its representatives to do. The goal of this project is (1) to examine to what extent elected politicians have correct perceptions regarding the preferences of the population they represent (both the population at large and their party’s electorate) and (2) to explain why some politicians hold more accurate perceptions than others.
This project was supported by the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) [grant number G012517N], the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) [grant number T.0182.18], the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto, the Ausschuss für Forschungsfragen (AFF 2018) at the University of Konstanz), and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) [grant number 100017_172559].