How politicians learn about public opinion

Politicians learning about public opinion and responding to their resulting perceptions is one key way via which responsive policy-making comes about. Despite the strong normative importance of politicians’ understanding opinion, empirical evidence on how politicians learn these opinions in first place scant. Drawing survey data collected from almost 900 incumbent five countries, this study presents unique descriptive sources deem most useful. The findings show that direct citizen contact information traditional news media as useful information, while social cues polls are considered much less These matter for substantive representation, citizens’ feeling being represented.