Bringing representatives back in: How political parties moderate patterns of inequality in opinion representation

Democratic theory argues that individuals should have their policy preferences equally represented in politics. Research on opinion congruence has often found, however, political parties’ views are more likely to align with those of higher-income and higher educated citizens. We argue this conclusion does not account for heterogeneity among parties. Based an integrated dataset containing the positions over 1,700 Belgian citizens 11 parties 120 statements, we examine how inequality between privileged underprivileged people varies find left-wing than they do economic issues, while opposite holds right-wing On cultural both left- better represent people. The exception is radical right party Vlaams Belang, which dimensions represents voters.