Abstract

What, if anything, is problematic about the involvement of celebrities in democratic politics? While a number of theorists have criticized celebrity involvement in politics, none so far have examined this issue using the tools of social epistemology, the study of the effects of social interactions, practices, and institutions on knowledge and belief acquisition. We will draw on these resources to investigate the issue of celebrity involvement in politics, specifically as this involvement relates to democratic theory and its implications for democratic practice. We will argue that an important and underexplored form of power, which we will call epistemic power, can explain one important way in which celebrity involvement in politics is problematic. This is because unchecked uses and unwarranted allocations of epistemic power, which celebrities tend to enjoy, threaten the legitimacy of existing democracies and raise important questions regarding core commitments of deliberative, epistemic, and plebiscitary models of democratic theory. We will finish by suggesting directions that democratic theorists could pursue when attempting to address some of these problems.

Highlights

  • What, if anything, is problematic about the involvement of celebrities in democratic politics? While a number of theorists have criticized celebrity involvement in politics, none so far have examined this issue using the tools of social epistemology, the study of the effects of social interactions, practices, and institutions on knowledge and belief acquisition

  • No one so far has examined this issue using the tools of social epistemology—that is, the study of the effects of social interactions, practices, and institutions on knowledge and belief acquisition

  • We draw on this account to develop a new critique of the role of celebrities in democratic politics and of the ability of democracies to live up to the ideals articulated by democratic theory

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Summary

Special Issue Article

While a number of theorists have criticized celebrity involvement in politics, none so far have examined this issue using the tools of social epistemology, the study of the effects of social interactions, practices, and institutions on knowledge and belief acquisition. No one so far has examined this issue using the tools of social epistemology—that is, the study of the effects of social interactions, practices, and institutions on knowledge and belief acquisition We utilize these resources to develop a novel critique of celebrity involvement in democratic politics. We argue that celebrity brings with it an important and underexplored form of power, epistemic power Recognizing this link reveals new resources for identifying problems with celebrity involvement in democratic politics. We conclude by suggesting potential avenues for future work in political science and democratic theory in light of our analysis

Celebrity and Epistemic Power
The Concept of Epistemic Power
Celebrity and Democracy
Democratic Theory
Analysis of Democratic Theory and Celebrity Epistemic Power
Agenda Setting
Substantive Equality and Checks on Power
Plebiscitary Democracy
Future Directions
Celebrity Creation
Ethics and Politics of Attention
Expertise and Power
Findings
Conclusion
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