Do Politicians Really Have A Conservative Bias?

Political scientists have long argued that legislators believe the public is more conservative than it really is—potentially shaping policies that don’t align with what voters actually want. But what if that story is incomplete? In this episode, we talk with University of Chicago political scientist Adam Zelizer, who challenges the conventional wisdom. His new research suggests that politicians may not be systematically biased to the right, but rather exhibit something he calls “midpoint bias”. We unpack why this matters: How do politicians perceive their constituents? Are surveys of public opinion misleading policymakers—or are policymakers just inattentive? And what does this all reveal about the messy relationship between democracy, representation, and what voters actually want? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You can listen to Do Politicians Really Have A Conservative Bias? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Do Politicians Really Have A Conservative Bias? is an episode from Not Another Politics Podcast by University of Chicago Podcast Network.

This episode is 00:53:41 long.

This episode was published on Aug 21, 2025.

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