Experts, Activists, and Democratic Politics Are Electorates Self-Educating [Hardcover]

This book addresses opinion leadership in democratic politics as a process whereby individuals send and receive information through their informally based networks of political communication.This book addresses opinion leadership in democratic politics as a process whereby individuals send and receive information through their informally based networks of political communication.This book addresses opinion leadership in democratic politics as a process whereby individuals send and receive information through their informally based networks of political communication.This book addresses opinion leadership in democratic politics as a process whereby individuals send and receive information through their informally based networks of political communication. The analyses are based on a series of small group experiments, conducted by the authors, which build on accumulated evidence from more than seventy years of survey data regarding political communication among interdependent actors. The various experimental designs provide an opportunity to assess the nature of the communication process, both in terms of increasing citizen expertise as well as in terms of communicating political biases.1. Experts, activists, and self-educating electorates T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt and John Barry Ryan; 2. The imperatives of interdependence T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt and John Barry Ryan; 3. Experts, activists, and the social communication of political expertise T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt, Jeanette Mendez, Tracy Osborn and John Barry Ryan; 4. Unanimity, discord, and opportunities for opinion leadership T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt, Jeanette Mendez and John Barry Ryan; 5. Informational asymmetries among voters T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt and John Barry Ryan; 6. Expertise and bias in political communication networks T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt, Alexander K. Mayer and John Barry Ryan; 7. Interdependence, communication, and calculation T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt and John Barry Ryan; 8. l“Æ