Business versus citizens: Whose interests do legislators consider in trade policy?

Legislators may consider both business interests and the preferences of voters when making trade policy decisions. But when business interests and voter preferences diverge, which side do they listen to? We argue that if legislators are aware of voter preferences, they tend to privilege voters. This effect, however, is conditional on political ideology, with left-leaning legislators reacting more strongly to voter demands than right-wing legislators. Moreover, we expect legislators that conceive of themselves as delegates to be more inclined towards voter preferences. We employ a series of survey experiments with over 1,000 legislators from 47 countries across the globe to test our expectations. Based on this unique dataset, we find support for our theoretical expectations. These findings contribute to large literatures on trade-policy making, representation, and elite political attitudes.