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When Can Politicians Scare Citizens Into Supporting Bad Policies? A Theory of Incentives with Fear-Based Content

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  • Lupia, Arthur
  • Menning, Jesse

Abstract

Analysts make competing claims about when and how politicians can use fear to gain support for suboptimal policies. Using a model, we clarify how common attributes of fear affect politicians’ abilities to achieve self-serving outcomes that are bad for voters. In it, a politician provides information about a threat. His statement need not be true. How citizens respond differs from most game-theoretic models – we proceed from more dynamic (and realistic) assumptions about how citizens think. Our conclusions counter popular claims about how easily politicians use fear to manipulate citizens, yield different policy advice than does recent scholarship on counterterrorism, and highlight issues (abstract, distant) and leaders (secretive) for which recent findings by political psychologists and public opinion scholars will – and will not – generalize.

Suggested Citation

  • Lupia, Arthur & Menning, Jesse, 2005. "When Can Politicians Scare Citizens Into Supporting Bad Policies? A Theory of Incentives with Fear-Based Content," MPRA Paper 102, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 Sep 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:102
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mutz, Diana C. & Reeves, Byron, 2005. "The New Videomalaise: Effects of Televised Incivility on Political Trust," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 99(1), pages 1-15, February.
    2. McCubbins, Mathew D & Noll, Roger G & Weingast, Barry R, 1987. "Administrative Procedures as Instruments of Political Control," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 243-277, Fall.
    3. Lupia,Arthur & McCubbins,Mathew D., 1998. "The Democratic Dilemma," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521584487, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    emotions; behavioral economics; game theory; political science; incentives;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games

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