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This article focuses on information selection in the United States House of Representatives. It asks, "Is the selection process in the House similar to the information selection process in other organizations?" Information selection fills three primary roles: an informing role, a supportive role, and a legitimizing role. The latter two roles may be more important in the House than in other organizations, since it is a more political setting. The article is based on an analysis of all hearings between 1978 and 1982 that dealt with the licensing and siting of nuclear power plants and nuclear waste management. It is shown that the organizational perspective is informative in explaining information search and selection processes within the House of Representatives.

The political-heuristics school has credited the political environment with providing easily used informational crutches that enable even poorly informed citizens to make competent political judgments. We develop a more general approach to the environment, arguing that it can either enhance or fail to enhance political judgment & that it shapes performance through the interaction of two factors: information & motivation. Using survey experiments that test citizens' ability to make tradeoffs among competing goals for health care reform, we find that performance depends heavily on environmental conditions. A combination of general information with increased motivation to act responsibly improves aggregate performance. An extremely favorable informational environment not only enhances performance, but it even eliminates the effects of individual differences in education & political sophistication. The analysis points toward reforming structures that shape the political environment as the most plausible route to improved democratic governance. 2 Tables, 2 Figures, 57 References. Adapted from the source document.

An important dimension of the future of fact is the status of political facts in research on public opinion. Analyzing the public's factual knowledge about public policy is central to addressing citizen competence yet more problematic than scholars have acknowledged. To show this, the authors first summarize a study of theirs that uses typical measures of citizens' information. In a survey of Illinois citizens, they measured factual perceptions about welfare policy. They found that citizens are not only uninformed about welfare but often misinformed—confident in erroneous perceptions. Such misinformation apparently has significant effects on attitudes toward welfare. The authors then consider some conceptual difficulties in research on citizens' information about policy. If the purpose is to ascertain how much information citizens possess, then the researcher must stipulate the relevant facts about an area of policy. But political facts are in large part politically determined, and the researcher often cannot identify precisely what the true and relevant facts are. Finally, the authors suggest a research approach in which citizens, in effect, choose the relevant facts themselves.

An important dimension of the future of fact is the status of political facts in research on public opinion. Analyzing the public's factual knowledge about public policy is central to addressing citizen competence, yet is problematic. To show this, scale data from 600+ IL citizens were used to measure factual perceptions about welfare policy. Findings indicate that citizens are not only uninformed about welfare but often misinformed -- confident in erroneous perceptions. Such misinformation apparently has significant effects on attitudes toward welfare. Conceptual difficulties in research on citizens' information about policy are considered. If the purpose is to ascertain how much information citizens possess, then the researcher must stipulate the relevant facts about an area of policy. But political facts are in large part politically determined, & the researcher often cannot identify precisely what are the true & relevant facts. A research approach in which citizens, in effect, choose the relevant facts themselves is suggested. 15 References. Adapted from the source document.