Why is discontent with politicians highest among less-educated citizens? Supplementing explanations concerning a lack of resources and knowledge, we examine the cultural distance to many a politician perceived by this group. Inspired by qualitative studies mapping the worldviews of people from the lower social strata, we explore less-educated citizens’ perceptions of politicians using in-depth (group) interviews carried out in various regions of the Netherlands (n = 26). Our analysis indicates that this group regards politicians as culturally distant “others” and that this perception goes hand in hand with specific negative evaluations of politicians. This improves our understanding of the much-reported political discontent of these citizens. In moving beyond the often mentioned unspecific divide between the “people” and the “elite”, our analysis reveals that our interviewees: (i) consider politicians to be insensitive to the lived experiences of the “common” people, and therefore, question their legitimacy and the policies they propose; (ii) resent their communication styles, which they describe as “beating about the bush” and perceive to be emblematic of indecisiveness and a lack of integrity; and (iii) accuse them of superiority signaling, inspiring feelings of misrecognition and opposition. We conclude with detailing the implications of our findings for (future) research.

中文翻译：

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“他们不知道处于底层是什么感觉”：探索感知文化距离在受教育程度较低的公民对政治家的不满中的作用

为什么受教育程度较低的公民对政客的不满程度最高？作为对缺乏资源和知识的补充解释，我们研究了这个群体所认为的许多政治家的文化距离。受到描绘低社会阶层人士世界观的定性研究的启发，我们使用在荷兰各个地区进行的深入（小组）访谈来探索受教育程度较低的公民对政治家的看法（n = 26）。我们的分析表明，这个群体将政治家视为文化上疏远的“其他人”，这种看法与对政治家的具体负面评价密切相关。这提高了我们对这些被广泛报道的公民的政治不满的理解。除了经常提到的“人民”和“精英”之间不明确的鸿沟之外，我们的分析表明，我们的受访者：(i) 认为政治家对“普通”人民的生活经验不敏感，因此，质疑他们合法性和他们提出的政策；(ii) 憎恨他们的沟通方式，他们将其描述为“左右为难”，并认为这是优柔寡断和缺乏诚信的象征；(iii) 指责他们发出优越感，激发误解和反对的感觉。