%0 Journal Article
%T Public Ignorance or Elitist Jargon? Reconsidering Americans¡¯ Overestimates of Government Waste and Foreign Aid
%A Vanessa Williamson
%J American Politics Research
%@ 1552-3373
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1532673X18759645
%X Widespread and profound public misinformation about government presents a serious challenge for democratic accountability. This article demonstrates that two of the most commonly-cited examples of public misperception of government are overstated, due in substantial part, to differences of elite and popular terminology. ¡°Foreign aid¡± is widely understood to encompass overseas military spending, and the term ¡°government waste¡± is popularly used to discuss systemic failures of the democratic process. Failing to take account of what members of the public mean by ¡°waste¡± and ¡°foreign aid,¡± existing studies overestimate public ignorance and obscure the substance of public critiques of U.S. policy, particularly among the less educated. The results of this article suggest the need for a reconsideration of what qualifies as evidence of public misinformation, and what that evidence implies for voters¡¯ capacity to assess their government
%K public opinion
%K elite jargon
%K government waste
%K foreign aid spending
%K misinformation
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1532673X18759645