The Cynical Public
The Cynical Public
In this chapter, Primo and Milyo explore attitudes about politics writ large, and specifically, influence, corruption, and the role of money in the political system. They find that Americans are indeed cynical about the political process, but they also have an expansive view about what constitutes corruption that goes far beyond the quid pro quo conception of corruption articulated by the US Supreme Court. They also find that Americans’ views on whether a particular behavior is corrupt depends very much on the group or individual engaging in the behavior—what they call contingent cynicism. In addition, Primo and Milyo show that the rhetoric of reform groups can in some cases do more damage to attitudes toward government than the rhetoric of Donald Trump.
Keywords: cynicism, corruption, trust in government, Donald Trump, campaign finance
Chicago Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
