Canberra, Australia - Apr 26, 2018: Parliament House, photo by Alexander (Adobe Stock)

POLPOP (formally known as POLEVPOP) is a transnational project examining the opinions, perceptions and evaluations of elected politicians in fourteen countries [1]. Most countries are in the European Union, except for Australia, Canada and Israel. Previous waves of this study included five European countries. This is the first time Australia has participated in this project.
 
The Australian team interviewed federal MPs and Senators between November 2022 and March 2023. We asked Australian politicians about their social background and opinions on public policy, how they thought voters made decisions about who to vote for, and how they used this information alongside other sources of public opinion. For comparison, 2,000 Australian citizens were surveyed in 2022 with similar questions.

We launched a report detailing our initial descriptive findings in December 2024. This report can be accessed here. 

Published Research from the Australian POLPOP project 

• Lucas, Jack, Lior Sheffer, Peter John Loewen, Stefaan Walgrave, Karolin Soontjens, Eran Amsalem, Stefanie Bailer, et al. 2024. ‘Politicians’ Theories of Voting Behavior’. American Political Science Review, November, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055424001060.

While political scientists regularly engage in spirited theoretical debates about elections and voting behaviour, few have noticed that elected politicians also have theories of elections and voting. Here, we investigate politicians’ positions on eight central theoretical debates in the area of elections and voting behaviour and compare politicians’ theories to those held by ordinary citizens. Using data from face-to-face interviews with nearly one thousand politicians in 11 countries, together with corresponding surveys of more than twelve thousand citizens, we show that politicians overwhelmingly hold thin, minimalist, “democratic realist” theories of voting, while citizens’ theories are more optimistic and policy-oriented. Politicians’ theoretical tendencies—along with their theoretical misalignment from citizens—are remarkably consistent across countries. These theories are likely to have important consequences for how politicians campaign, communicate with the public, think about public policy, and represent their constituents.

Select Publications from POLPOP I Project

• Pilet J-B, Sheffer L, Helfer L, Varone F, Vliegenthart R and Walgrave S (2024) ‘Do Politicians Outside the United States Also Think Voters are More Conservative than they Really Are? A Comparative Study of the Conservative Bias in Elites’ Perception of Public Opinion.’, American Political Science Review, 118(2):1037–1045, doi:10.1017/S0003055423000527.
• Sheffer L, Loewen PJ, Walgrave S, Bailer S, Breunig C, Helfer L, Pilet J-B, Varone F and Vliegenthart R (2023) ‘How Do Politicians Bargain? Evidence from Ultimatum Games with Legislators in Five Countries’, American Political Science Review, 117(4):1429–1447, doi:10.1017/S0003055422001459.
• Walgrave S & Soontjens K (2023) ‘How politicians learn about public opinion’, Research & Politics, 10(3), doi:10.1177/205316802312006

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