What Do Politicians Think Motivates Voters?

Do politicians really understand what drives voters—or are they relying on flawed assumptions that could shape democracy in troubling ways? As we take some time off for the holidays, we wanted to re-share our episode with University of Calgary political scientist Jack Lucas, whose paper “Politicians’ Theories of Voting Behavior,” reveals striking gaps between how politicians perceive voters and how voters see themselves. While politicians often hold a cynical, “democratic realist” view of voters, citizens are far more optimistic about their own behavior. But who’s right—and does it even matter? 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 What Do Politicians Think Motivates Voters? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

What Do Politicians Think Motivates Voters? is an episode from Not Another Politics Podcast by University of Chicago Podcast Network.

This episode is 00:55:20 long.

This episode was published on Jan 1, 2026.

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