Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Supporting your high street Find out how »
Do Facts Matter? : Information and Misinformation in American Politics, Paperback / softback Book

Do Facts Matter? : Information and Misinformation in American Politics Paperback / softback

Part of the The Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture Series series

Paperback / softback

Out of stock

Description

A democracy falters when most of its citizens are uninformed or misinformed, when misinformation affects political decisions and actions, or when political actors foment misinformation - the state of affairs the United States faces today, as this timely book makes painfully clear.

In Do Facts Matter? Jennifer L. Hochschild and Katherine Levine Einstein start with Thomas Jefferson's ideal citizen, who knows and uses correct information to make policy or political choices.

What, then, the authors ask, are the consequences if citizens are informed but do not act on their knowledge?

More serious, what if they do act, but on incorrect information?

Analyzing the use, nonuse, and misuse of facts in various cases - such as the call to impeach Bill Clinton, the response to global warming, Clarence Thomas's appointment to the Supreme Court, the case for invading Iraq, beliefs about Barack Obama's birthplace and religion, and the Affordable Care Act - Hochschild and Einstein argue persuasively that errors of commission (that is, acting on falsehoods) are even more troublesome than errors of omission.

While citizens' inability or unwillingness to use the facts they know in their political decision making may be frustrating, their acquisition and use of incorrect ""knowledge"" pose a far greater threat to a democratic political system. Do Facts Matter? looks beyond individual citizens to the role that political elites play in informing, misinforming, and encouraging or discouraging the use of accurate or mistaken information or beliefs.

Hochschild and Einstein show that if a well-informed electorate remains a crucial component of a successful democracy, the deliberate concealment of political facts poses its greatest threat.

Information

£18.95

Out of stock
Add to Basket
Sign in to add to wishlist
 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information

Also in the The Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture Series series  |  View all

Under Fire and Under Water Volume 16

£25.95

Add to Basket

The End of the Republican Era

£18.95

Add to Basket

The Democratic Century

£29.95

Add to Basket

Party Wars

£21.95

Add to Basket