Introduction: Why Democracy Is Not Working

Abstract

The introduction provides an overview of the book’s argument, and some general observations about the importance of ideas and information in affecting political outcomes. To answer the question “why do people believe what they believe about politics,” three theories concerning beliefs and information are examined. Combining them, the resulting theoretical perspective requires an exploration of the demand and supply sides of political information: psychology and the news media, respectively. Information, particularly a lack of information, lies at the heart of current political problems. These problems are not information “all the way down”—they are more than merely a lack of information, there are resource constraints and psychological biases too. Yet, their solutions could all be based fundamentally on information. Hence the importance of looking at the relationship of media and politics.