Abstract
Political elites—like ministers or members of parliament—face numerous phenomena that are characterized by uncertainty. Uncertainty ranges from resolvable to radical, whereby the former can be removed with more or better information, but radical uncertainty cannot. Remarkably, little is known about political elites’ responses to such phenomena, both theoretically (what responses are likely?) and empirically (which responses do political elites display?). This “New Ideas” contribution addresses the theoretical lacuna by presenting a multidisciplinary conceptual map of possible responses to radical and resolvable uncertainty. These responses influence political elites’ effectiveness in solving problems and, thus, how representative democracies function. The article also sketches how to identify the responses empirically.
Original language | English |
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Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Political Studies Review |
DOIs | |
Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 25 Jan 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2024.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research is funded by the European Union (ERC Consolidator grant, RADIUNCE, #101043543).
Funders | Funder number |
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European Commission | |
European Research Council | 101043543 |
Keywords
- political elites
- radical uncertainty
- representative democracy
- resolvable uncertainty
- responses to uncertainty