Suchergebnisse

"The Nature of Belief Systems" sets forth a Hobson's choice between rule by the politically ignorant masses & rule by the ideologically constrained -- which is to say, the doctrinaire -- elites. On the one hand, lacking comprehensive cognitive structures, such as ideological "belief systems," with which to understand politics, most people learn distressingly little about it. On the other hand, a spiral of conviction seems to make it difficult for the highly informed few to see any aspects of politics but those that confirm the cognitive structures that organize their political perceptions. This is a troubling situation for any consequentialist democratic political theory, according to which what is crucial is the electorate's (& subsidiary decision makers') ability to make informed policy judgments, not their possession of willful but uninformed political "attitudes." Any political theorist who does not take democracy to be an end in itself (regardless of its consequences) should be concerned about Converse's endings. Tables. Adapted from the source document.

Karl Popper's methodology highlights our scientific ignorance: hence the need to institutionalize open-mindedness through controlled experiments, which may falsify our fallible theories about the world. Popper's approach to politics, however, underplays the problem of ignorance. In endorsing "piecemeal social engineering," Popper assumes that the social-democratic state & its citizens are capable of detecting social problems, & of assessing the results of policies aimed at solving them, through a process of experimentation analogous to that of natural science. But just as in science, the facts that underpin political debate are brought to our attention by theories that, as Max Weber emphasized, can be tested only through counterfactual thought experiments. & public-opinion & political-psychology research suggest that human beings are far too ignorant, illogical, & doctrinaire to conduct rigorous testing of the theories that inform their political views. F. A. Hayek realized that the public could not engage, specifically, in intelligent "piecemeal engineering" of the economy, but he failed to draw the conclusion that this was due to a specific type of political ignorance: ignorance of economic theory. Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.

Introduces a special journal issue on academic & media bias, the perceptions of political reality that journalists take to be uncontroversial & that therefore inform their scholarship & journalism. References. Adapted from the source document.

An introduction to a double issue on "The Shaping of Public Opinion" explores the powerful impact of the media on perceptions of political reality & the lack of attention public-opinion researchers have given to the media as the source of people's stereotypes about the political world. It is maintained that ideas about what best serves a person's economic, racial, or gender interests are generally acquired from the mass media. Consideration is given to the importance of studying the impact of corporate owners on media content & the possibility that the receipt of different cultural messages is responsible for people's differing opinions. The nature of political knowledge is discussed, along with the fallacy of political debate; problematic aspects of expert authorities; & the media's ability to disseminate political myths. It is concluded that bringing the media back into the study of public opinion will require replacing interests with stereotypes produced by the media & other cultural mediators, & acknowledging the pervasiveness of ignorance of the world. A synopsis of each chapter is included. 14 References. J. Lindroth

In a certain sense, voluntary communities & market relationships are relatively less coercive than democracy & bureaucracy: they offer more positive freedom. In that respect, they are more like romantic relationships or friendships than are democracies & bureaucracies. This tends to make voluntary communities & markets not only more pleasant forms of interaction, but more effective ones -- contrary to Weber's confidence in the superior rationality of bureaucratic control. 14 References. Adapted from the source document.