Equal representation is based on the egalitarian principle of ‘one citizen, one vote’. This principle is threatened if the preferences of a small and powerful group carry more weight among political elites. This paper studies whether political elites tend to agree more with business elites, labor unions, or citizens on European integration. Stances towards the EU constitute an interesting case, as the EU is becoming an increasingly important level in policymaking. We use the rich survey data of the Intune Project to compare the opinions of national political elites in 15 EU member states on European integration with those of the general public, and top labor and business elites. We anticipate political elites to be generally more in agreement with business elites. However, political elites are expected to agree more with voters than special interests in PR systems, and in countries where European integration is highly salient.
