Public Ignorance or Elitist Jargon? Reconsidering Americans’ Overestimates of Government Waste and Foreign Aid

Bibliographic Data

ID6179631
AuthorsVanessa Williamson (Brookings Institution, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume47
Issue1
Pages152-173
Publication date2019-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Politics Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1532-673X • E-ISSN: 1552-3373
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1532673x18759645
OpenAlexW2793798103
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited38

Widespread and profound public misinformation about government presents a serious challenge for democratic accountability. This article demonstrates that two of the most commonly-cited examples of public misperception of government are overstated, due in substantial part, to differences of elite and popular terminology. “Foreign aid” is widely understood to encompass overseas military spending, and the term “government waste” is popularly used to discuss systemic failures of the democratic process. Failing to take account of what members of the public mean by “waste” and “foreign aid,” existing studies overestimate public ignorance and obscure the substance of public critiques of U.S. policy, particularly among the less educated. The results of this article suggest the need for a reconsideration of what qualifies as evidence of public misinformation, and what that evidence implies for voters’ capacity to assess their government

Accountability · Democracy · Economics · Elite · Ignorance · Jargon · Misinformation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public policy · Terminology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Social Media and Politics

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