Political Elites and the ‘War on Truth’

57 Pages Posted: 10 Apr 2020 Last revised: 21 Dec 2021

See all articles by Thomas Braeuninger

Thomas Braeuninger

University of Mannheim

Nikolay Marinov

University of Houston - Department of Political Science

Date Written: March 16, 2020

Abstract

Under what conditions do self-serving political elites choose to engage in `war on truth' (WOT)? We build on existing insights, which maintain that WOT promotes withdrawal and skepticism among voters, to show that seeding mistrust is one strategy for altering the information environment of the public. We build a formal model in which elites push the strategy when evidence on a policy issue goes against them such as during a political scandal. We characterize the `WOT trade-off' faced by panderers: immobilizing voters locks in the status quo and thereby prevents the public from enacting policy change the elite dislikes but it also undermines future policy changes the elite may in fact like. We draw on a number of illustrations from discourse pushed by the Kremlin on Western media markets and from the informational environment in ``diminished’’ democracies to demonstrate how our argument explains variation in the occurrence and intensity of conspiracy-pandering, one notable WOT strategy.

Keywords: conspiracy theory, war on truth

Suggested Citation

Braeuninger, Thomas and Marinov, Nikolay, Political Elites and the ‘War on Truth’ (March 16, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3555458 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3555458

Thomas Braeuninger

University of Mannheim ( email )

Mannheim, D-68131
Germany

Nikolay Marinov (Contact Author)

University of Houston - Department of Political Science ( email )

TX 77204-3011
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.nikolaymarinov.com

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