Political Understanding
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6229147 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maxime Lepoutre (0000-0001-7573-8585, University of Reading, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 346-365 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-1234 • E-ISSN: 1469-2112 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0007123422000023 |
| OpenAlex | W4293086800 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 35 |
Public opinion research has shown that voters accept many falsehoods about politics. This observation is widely considered troubling for democracy – and especially participatory ideals of democracy. I argue that this influential narrative is nevertheless flawed because it misunderstands the nature of political understanding. Drawing on philosophical examinations of scientific modelling, I demonstrate that accepting falsehoods within one's model of political reality is compatible with – and indeed can positively enhance – one's understanding of that reality. Thus, the observation that voters accept many political falsehoods does not necessarily establish that they lack political understanding. I then address three worries: that voters cannot generally engage in such political modelling; that political modelling obscures facts that are crucial to political understanding; and that successful political modelling would require knowing that one's model contains falsehoods. My responses reveal how, going forward, we should measure political ignorance, and they highlight the standing importance of participatory democracy
Citizen journalism · Democracy · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ignorance · Narrative · Participatory democracy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Public opinion · Sociology · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Philosophy · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
On the delegitimising force of democracy’s epistemic dysfunctions an institutional integrity account
Political ignorance is both rational and radical
Narrative Counterspeech
How Partisanship Can Moderate the Influence of Communicated Information on the Beliefs of Agents Aiming to Form True Beliefs
Introduction
Rethinking Citizen Competence
The Epistemic Aims of Democracy
What Americans know about politics and why it matters
Neither Liberal nor Conservative
The Epistemic Benefit of Transient Diversity
II—Criticism and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes
Democracy and Political Ignorance
Is Deliberative Democracy Feasible? Political Disengagement and Trust in Liberal Democratic States
The Routledge Handbook of Political Epistemology
Inclusion and Democracy
Democracy and Disenfranchisement
Strangers in Their Own Land
Barbershops, Bibles, and BET
Democracy for Realists
The Politics of Resentment
Scientific understanding and felicitous legitimate falsehoods
Empathetic Understanding and Deliberative Democracy
Is Understanding A Species Of Knowledge
Public ignorance and democratic theory
The nature of belief systems in mass publics (1964)
Democratic Group Cognition
Against Elections
Can deliberation neutralise power
The Concept of Political Competence
Human Life Is Group Life
The Value of Understanding
Does it or Doesn't it? Geographic Differences and the Costs of Living
Local Economic Development in an Age of Devolution
Local Government Fiscal Burden in Nonmetropolitan America1
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |