The political class in citizens’ minds: Mapping public perceptions of politicians

Abstract Politicians are often portrayed as a socially distinct and internally homogeneous elite – a narrative central to populist rhetoric and scholarly debates on political discontent. Yet we know little about how voters mentally represent politicians. Using survey data from Denmark ( N = 1302), combining free association tasks, open-ended descriptions, and closed-ended items, I demonstrate that most citizens view politicians as both internally homogeneous and socially distinct from the general population. These perceptions correlate with negative characterisations and significantly lower political trust, external efficacy, and democratic satisfaction. Crucially, perceived social distinctiveness matters more than perceived homogeneity: citizens who view politicians as different from ordinary people show substantially diminished political support, regardless of whether they see politicians as similar to one another. By shifting the analytical focus to citizens’ mental representations, this study highlights the importance of not only who politicians are but also how they are imagined by the public.