Holding elected officials accountable is crucial, but their explanations often fall short. This article reveals a key limitation in the literature on elite explanation giving.
New Findings:
* We show that explanations from elites are ineffective against counter-explanations highlighting ulterior motives.︎
* Even low-credibility partisan sources can diminish the impact of these official accounts.︎
* These results suggest elected officials have less leeway in actions than previously thought.︎
Experimental Design:
* Our work employs three pre-registered survey experiments to demonstrate this finding.︎
The Puzzle:
This research underscores a tension: while elites offer explanations, citizens often suspect hidden agendas.︎
| Can Elites Escape Blame by Explaining Themselves? Suspicion and the Limits of Elite Explanations was authored by Joshua Robison. It was published by Cambridge in BJPS in 2022. |
