"Politicians Think You're Dumb" Re: The BBB model of Western democracy

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Politicians Think You're Dumb. Are They Right?
A striking new study reveals that elected officials have a far more
pessimistic view of voter behavior than do citizens themselves.
Jerusalem Demsas
March 25, 2025, 6 AM ET
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.
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