Information and Democracy
Title | Information and Democracy PDF eBook |
Author | Stuart N. Soroka |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 215 |
Release | 2022-02-03 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1108491340 |
A large-scale empirical investigation into the frequency and accuracy of media coverage of public policy.
Information, Democracy, and Autocracy
Title | Information, Democracy, and Autocracy PDF eBook |
Author | James R. Hollyer |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 401 |
Release | 2018-09-27 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1108356338 |
Advocates for economic development often call for greater transparency. But what does transparency really mean? What are its consequences? This breakthrough book demonstrates how information impacts major political phenomena, including mass protest, the survival of dictatorships, democratic stability, as well as economic performance. The book introduces a new measure of a specific facet of transparency: the dissemination of economic data. Analysis shows that democracies make economic data more available than do similarly developed autocracies. Transparency attracts investment and makes democracies more resilient to breakdown. But transparency has a dubious consequence under autocracy: political instability. Mass-unrest becomes more likely, and transparency can facilitate democratic transition - but most often a new despotic regime displaces the old. Autocratic leaders may also turn these threats to their advantage, using the risk of mass-unrest that transparency portends to unify the ruling elite. Policy-makers must recognize the trade-offs transparency entails.
Degrees of Democracy
Title | Degrees of Democracy PDF eBook |
Author | Stuart N. Soroka |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 255 |
Release | 2010 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 0521868335 |
This book develops and tests a 'thermostatic' model of public opinion and policy and examines both responsiveness and representation across a range of policy domains in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, concluding that representative democratic government functions surprisingly well.
Social Media and Democracy
Title | Social Media and Democracy PDF eBook |
Author | Nathaniel Persily |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 365 |
Release | 2020-09-03 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 1108835554 |
A state-of-the-art account of what we know and do not know about the effects of digital technology on democracy.
The Information Game in Democracy
Title | The Information Game in Democracy PDF eBook |
Author | Dipankar Sinha |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
Pages | 274 |
Release | 2018-03-07 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 0429017995 |
This book examines democracy and governance from the unconventional and largely under researched vantage point of information. It looks at the exclusionary informational dynamics in democracy and analyses the role of information capitalism, new technology, virtual networks, cyberspace and media. While emphasizing the foundational value of information as the ‘source code’ of modern societies the book explains how it is strategically maneuvered in technologies of governance in so-called established and credible democracies. It studies the neutralization and subversion as well as the complex, nuanced and multidimensional act of othering of people, who are supposed to be the repository of power in democracy and in whose interest the business of governance is expected to be conducted. The work highlights the challenges of technocratic interpretations, stunted public policy communication, hyped information society, cooption through the state-of-the-art capitalism, rhetoric of virtual networks and the often-unilateral agenda of mainstream media. A major intervention in understanding the nature of contemporary democracy and polity, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics, media, political communication and technology studies.
Democracy and Fake News
Title | Democracy and Fake News PDF eBook |
Author | Serena Giusti |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 233 |
Release | 2020-12-30 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1000286819 |
This book explores the challenges that disinformation, fake news, and post-truth politics pose to democracy from a multidisciplinary perspective. The authors analyse and interpret how the use of technology and social media as well as the emergence of new political narratives has been progressively changing the information landscape, undermining some of the pillars of democracy. The volume sheds light on some topical questions connected to fake news, thereby contributing to a fuller understanding of its impact on democracy. In the Introduction, the editors offer some orientating definitions of post-truth politics, building a theoretical framework where various different aspects of fake news can be understood. The book is then divided into three parts: Part I helps to contextualise the phenomena investigated, offering definitions and discussing key concepts as well as aspects linked to the manipulation of information systems, especially considering its reverberation on democracy. Part II considers the phenomena of disinformation, fake news, and post-truth politics in the context of Russia, which emerges as a laboratory where the phases of creation and diffusion of fake news can be broken down and analysed; consequently, Part II also reflects on the ways to counteract disinformation and fake news. Part III moves from case studies in Western and Central Europe to reflect on the methodological difficulty of investigating disinformation, as well as tackling the very delicate question of detection, combat, and prevention of fake news. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, law, political philosophy, journalism, media studies, and computer science, since it provides a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of post-truth politics.
Knowledge Democracy
Title | Knowledge Democracy PDF eBook |
Author | Roel in 't Veld |
Publisher | Springer Science & Business Media |
Pages | 401 |
Release | 2010-03-10 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 3642113818 |
Knowledge democracy is an emerging concept that addresses the relationships between knowledge production and dissemination, as well as the functions of the media and democratic institutions. Although democracy has been the most successful concept of governance for societies for the last two centuries, representative democracy, which became the hallmark of advanced nation-states, seems to be in decline. Media politics is an important factor in the downfall of the original meaning of representation, yet more direct forms of democracy have not yet found an institutional embedding. Further, the Internet has also drastically changed the rules of the game, and a better educated public has broad access to information, selects for itself which types to examine, and ignores media filters. Some citizens have even become "media" themselves. In a time where the political agendas are filled with combatting so-called evils, new designs for the relationships between science, politics and media are needed. This book outlines the challenges entailed in pursuing a vital knowledge democracy.