Ideological bias in policy implementation: public opinion and policy outcomes in 43 democracies

Previous research has documented a conservative bias in politicians' perceptions of public opinion. Do similar biases also exist in policy implementation, relative to public opinion? In this article survey data from over two million respondents is combined with manually coded data on policy implementation in 43 countries. It is found that leftist and culturally conservative policy proposals are not implemented to the degree warranted by public support for them. This bias is not caused by policy adhering to the preferences of the affluent: leftist and culturally conservative policy is also under-provided relative to the preferences of high-income earners, albeit to a smaller extent. The results suggest that factors beyond group-based differences in influence affect how different types of policies are translated into practice.