Public voices in the heavenly chorus? Group type bias and opinion representation

Figures & data

Table 1. Actor level congruence between interest groups and the public opinion majority.

		Diffuse interests	Concentrated interests				Mixed interests
		Public interest groups	Business groups	Firms	Trade unions & occupa-tional assoc.	Hobby & identity groups	Expert organizations, think tanks & institutional associations	Total
Congruence	%	77.86	40.83	45.45	60.40	60.00	41.23	53.83
Total n	N	140	120	198	149	50	114	771

Table 2. Share of the public supporting the actor’s position.

	(1)	(2)
	Volume	Volume
Group Type (ref.: Public Interest Groups)
Hobby & Identity	−0.03 (0.03)	−0.03 (0.03)
Business Groups	−0.10*** (0.03)	−0.10*** (0.03)
Trade Unions & Occupational Groups	−0.05^+ (0.03)	−0.04 (0.03)
Firms	−0.09*** (0.02)	−0.09*** (0.02)
Expert Org, Think Tanks & Institutional Assoc.	−0.14*** (0.03)	−0.14*** (0.03)
Issue-level Controls
Country (ref: Germany)
UK	0.00 (0.04)	−0.01 (0.04)
Denmark	0.05 (0.04)	0.05 (0.04)
Sweden	0.07^+ (0.04)	0.08* (0.04)
Netherlands	0.01 (0.04)	0.02 (0.04)
Policy Type (ref: Distributive Issues)
Regulatory		−0.00 (0.04)
Redistributive		−0.00 (0.04)
Standardized media saliency		−0.02^+ (0.01)
Constant	0.57*** (0.03)	0.56*** (0.04)
Policy Issue Intercept	0.00 (0.00)	0.00 (0.00)
Level 1 Residual	0.04 (0.00)	(0.04) (0.00)
Number of Cases	771	771
AIC	−271	−268
BIC	−215	−199

Notes: Multi-level Linear Regressions with SEs in Parentheses, ⁺p < 0.10, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table 3. Absolute percentage point difference between the shares of the public and interest groups on an issue supporting policy change.

	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)
	Distance	Distance	Distance	Distance	Distance	Distance
HHI	0.30* (0.12)	0.33** (0.12)	0.17 (0.15)
Share of business groups				0.00 (0.10)	−0.01 (0.10)	0.15 (0.11)
Issue-level Controls
Country (ref: Germany)
UK		−0.03 (0.08)	0.02 (0.09)		−0.01 (0.09)	0.05 (0.09)
Denmark		−0.12 (0.08)	−0.11 (0.09)		−0.09 (0.09)	−0.08 (0.08)
Sweden		−0.08 (0.08)	−0.14 (0.09)		−0.05 (0.09)	−0.16^+ (0.09)
Netherlands		−0.07 (0.08)	−0.09 (0.09)		−0.04 (0.09)	−0.08 (0.09)
Number of actors on an issue (logged)			−0.08 (0.05)			−0.13** (0.04)
Media saliency			0.06^+ (0.03)			0.08* (0.03)
Policy Type (ref: Distributive Issues)
Regulatory			−0.01 (0.09)			0.01 (0.09)
Redistributive			−0.06 (0.09)			−0.09 (0.09)
Constant	0.12* (0.06)	0.17* (0.08)	0.49* (0.21)	0.26*** (0.04)	0.30*** (0.08)	0.66*** (0.16)
Number of cases	50	50	50	50	50	50
Adjusted R ^2	0.11	0.07	0.07	−0.02	−0.08	0.09

Note: OLS Regressions with SEs in Parentheses, ⁺p < 0.10, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.