Democracy and the Marketplace of Ideas
Communication and Government in Sweden and the United States

This book explores the institutional links between society and government that shape political communication.

Erik Asard (Author), W. Lance Bennett (Author)

9780521563369, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 January 1997

264 pages, 1 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.7 x 2 cm, 0.54 kg

"Reader regulars of FS, which tries to map the marketplace of ideas, will appreciate the important trends discussed here." Future Survey

How do citizens and leaders in democratic nations communicate about their problems and prospects for the future? What can be learned from other nations about how to communicate in more effective and satisfying ways? These are important questions in an age of instant electronic communication in which the populations of the world's industrial democracies are wired for all manner of input. This book, first published in 1997, explores the institutional links between society and government that shape political communication. These regulators of national communication include parties and electoral representation systems, interest group processes, campaign finance mechanisms, and the media - factors that are familiar to anyone who follows politics yet that may not be recognized for their combined effects on the quality of political discourse. The authors show how these core elements of political systems affect the ways in which people communicate, and how effective that communication is at defining public problems and identifying workable solutions.

Preface
Part I. The Marketplace of Ideas: 1. Democracies in disarray
2. The idea of a marketplace
Part II. The Great Twentieth Century Governing Ideas: 3. The rise and fall of new deal liberalism in the United States
4. The rise and fall of the Folkhem in Swedish politics
Part III. Rhetoric and Government: Understanding Public Policy and Elections: 5. Idea markets and the policy process: tax reform in Sweden and the United States
6. The marketplace of ideas in elections and campaign rhetoric
Part IV. Making Democracy Work: 7. Reinventing communication by reforming institutions.

Subject Areas: Political structures: democracy [JPHV]