The goal of the study is (1) to explore to what extent politicians have accurate perceptions regarding the preferences of the population they represent and (2) to explain why some politicians hold more precise perceptions than others. The project contends that in well-working democracies politicians need to be able to assess public wants accurately. The starting assumption is that that parliamentarians wish to represent citizens; but we know little about how politicians actually gauge public preferences. What information and sources do they use? How do they decide on their accuracy? Our research design matches a population survey with 150 interviews with parliamentarians from the Bundestag. In these interviews, we test if politicians match citizens' survey responses.
