IPHENOMENISTIC THEORY
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everyone made rational informed deasions using infonnation from media. For example, there would be tragic- consequenc if many people based their vote decisions on bad or biased mf- ormation from media_ Nor could our political system handle the high levels of politica- 1 activism that would occur if everyone took a strong interest in politics. These arguments reject Libertarian theory (Chapter 5). If voters don't need to be informed, or if informing them might actually lead to political disorder, then there is no need for media to deliver information. Research findings demonstrated that uncensored and independent media typically failed to diffuse political information to most people. If so, what political role should media be expected to play? To reinforce the status quo except in times of crisis? Was there really a need for media to serve as a public forum as Libertarian theory had assumed? Or as Dewey had advocated, to systematically educate the people so they could be critical thinkers as well as informed voters? If so, how should this forum operate and what resources would be necessary to make it work effectively? Limited-effects research findings were quite pessimistic concerning the effective-ness of such a forum. They implied that such a public forum would serve little purpose except for the handful of people who were already well informed about and engaged in politics. These conclusions directed researchers away from the study of mass media and the formation of media policy and toward political parties, political socialization, and the institutions of government such as legislatures, political executives such as the president, and the legal system. These topics soon dominated the research agenda in political science. The political perspective implicit in these arguments became known as elite pluralism. During the 1960s, elite pluralism strongly challenged traditional forms of democratic theory and was widely debated in politi-cal science. Elite pluralism claimed to be scientific because, unlike classi-cal democratic theory, it was based on empirical data. V. O. Key provided one of its best formulations in Public Opinion and American Democracy (1961). Like Lazarsfeld, Key was optimistic in the face of