Representation, Truthfulness and Lies in Politics

Abstract

This panel seeks to deepen our understanding of the place of truthfulness in European politics and the extent to which truthfulness is expected and pursued in political discourse in Europe. Is truthfulness still a widely held norm of democratic politics or are we moving towards a post-truth era in which citizens and/or political leaders are giving up on truth and as a result do not mind if political leaders bullshit and are not truthful? The absence of truthfulness is particularly spread in populist discourse. However, the use of lies and misinformation by politicians undermines the basic principles of democratic society based on political equality, and institutionalised through processes of authorisation and accountability. This panel invites normative, theoretical and empirical papers which address question such: what is the place of truth in representative democratic politics? Can representatives lie and still act democratically? Do citizens expect their political representatives to be truthful to them? What institutional features of representative democracies do political representatives and citizens experience as incentives and disincentives to truthfulness?