‘Politicians Don’t Understand People Like Me’: A Qualitative Analysis of a Lament

Abstract

ABSTRACT Citizens want politicians to demonstrate that they ‘understand people like them’. Yet many citizens believe politicians fail to do this when they communicate and that this signals what appears to be a broken relationship between them and their elected representatives. Through four focus groups with voters in the UK reporting low interest in politics, this article explores what people mean when they state that politicians do not understand them or people like them. Interpreting our findings in relation to political theories of recognition and respect, we suggest that failures of trust in politicians arise from lack of clarity about what democratic representation entails. Repairing this communicative relationship depends upon the nurturance of public respect towards the role that political representatives perform. By respect we do not mean deference or submission, but a capacity to appraise role performance in terms of clear expectations.