Professor of communication and democracy at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, Michael X. Delli Carpini, calls for clearer democratic government and public sector communication norms.

19 September 2023

- In my darker moments, I feel like it's almost as if we're at the end of the long period of the Enlightenment, where facts don’t matter to people anymore.

Professor Michael X. Delli Carpini is careful to make reservations. He doesn’t want to sound overly dramatic. And he’s addressing American government communication and the American public debate specifically.

Still, he thinks there’s a lot at stake these years and that government and public sector communication play important roles in the defining historical situation we’re in, increasingly influencing how civic debate cultures unfold as one of the core features of liberal democracy. Not only in the US but everywhere in the Western World, including Europe.

To the American professor, the post-truth era, with its politically induced and social media-fueled fact-relativism, is a grave threat to our societies.

- I don’t want to believe that facts don’t matter to us anymore. Because then it leads to thinking that maybe democracy is not the system that works best, he says.

- But I'm committed to democracy enough as the only authentic, fair way to govern that I think we should be focusing on ways in which that can be changed.

Elected officials shape views on government

One of the most important drivers of people’s trust in representative democracy is the representatives themselves.

“The way people shape their views about government at large is through elected officials, whether it’s a governor of a state or a mayor of a town, or the president of a country, or the congress and the legislators of the country,” Delli Carpini points out.

Recent research from London University College has indicated that a popular democratic reform would be if ‘politicians spoke more honestly’ and showed significant public support for stronger mechanisms to uphold integrity among politicians.

“Norms at a minimum, rules as much as possible”

Along those lines, Delli Carpini argues that a public official who's in a leadership position, like a president or a minister, has a big responsibility.

He thinks it ought to be a natural thing for someone holding a public office to be honest. But looking at reality, Delli Carpini argues that it might be a good idea to consider clearer democratic guidelines for government and public sector communication or even regulation.

- I think that there should be norms at a minimum and rules as much as possible on how public leaders communicate and what they communicate about, Delli Carpini explains.

Norms should address what we as citizens should expect from our elected officials and public authorities regarding their communication and contribution to the civic debate. Just as we expect the public institutions to provide decent health care, roads, trains, schools, sanitation and so on.

Democratic values

But, he underlines, it’s a tricky question. On one side, we don’t want a president or a prime minister to lie to us or manipulate us. On the other side, we don’t want to limit freedom of speech either, since the right for anyone to say what they want is a fundamental part of our democracy.

- The commitment to free public speech, especially in politics, makes it very difficult to hold accountable what is said, Delli Carpini points out.

For that reason, he thinks discussing government and public sector communication norms is both important and the absolute minimum we should do.

- I think that however you communicate [as a government or public sector communicator, ed.], whatever you’re communicating, it should be in service of a set of democratic values.

Factual as best we can

Delli Carpini argues that it is important that we as citizens can rely on what is being said by ministers, mayors and public sector authorities when they communicate and put forth their initiatives, projects, and ideas.

Whatever ministers or mayors or public authorities are arguing, they should be doing it within a factual framework – as best we can understand the facts.

- I mean “fact” in quotes because sometimes it's hard to know what exactly a fact is. But ideally, people should be able to disagree on, for example, what the right policy might be for controlling climate change, but it shouldn’t be, ‘well, there is no climate change,’ given the overwhelming scientific evidence, Delli Carpini says.

Sometimes, we think we know the truth

He points out that in product advertising and in most areas of consumer culture, rules govern what can be put out to the public and that companies are generally not allowed to say what they want without certain proof or evidence. But when it comes to government communication, it is not so.

- I understand, at least in the United States, the fear that regulating political speech can slip over into inappropriately preventing people from being allowed to say certain things.

He declares himself ‘enough of a civil libertarian’ to say that sometimes we think we know the truth, and then it turns out we are wrong.

- But if there is a serious commitment to trying to be fact-based and trying to uphold the values of a democracy, that gets you a long way.

What troubles him, drawing mostly on the US but also referring to the situation in other parts of the world, is that, in his view, putting forth clearly untruthful claims used to trigger a negative reaction in the public, acting as a way to keep public officials accountable. That’s not the case now.

- We seem to be at a moment in the United States where people can know that what a public official is saying is factually wrong, yet still support that person. There is no price to pay for misleading the public. 

Democratic education

A fact-based civic debate alone is not enough to make people supportive of democracy, according to Delli Carpini. Something more is needed.

- This is not only about how communicators can communicate better and in ways consistent with fundamental principles of democracy. It is also about how we work with citizens in order to get them to catch the pitch and to understand what to do with it.

According to the professor, it’s about how we prepare citizens to live in a democracy. It’s about democratic education. He is not overly proud of the conditions in his own country.

- In the United States, we do a terrible job of educating people about democracy. I think it probably varies significantly in various parts of Europe, but you both need a communications environment from the public sector that provides useful and usable information, but you also need a citizenry that knows what to do with that information. So part of this is also working with school systems, for example.

A democratic public sector communication approach
The elected officials, the school system, the news media and the citizens, all vital components of democracy, playing important parts in making democracy work in practice.

This is also true for the people working with government and public sector communication, the government and public sector communicators.

In fact, public sector communicators and special advisors could potentially have a very significant say because of their work function.

- Some of the most effective critiques of elected officials who fail to follow democratic values and a fact-based approach could come from the very people who work for them. That could be done in a way that’s very public, where people could resign, for example, or it could be done as a critique that could be built into the system.

Along that line of thought, Delli Carpini calls for a stronger and clearer democratic self-conscience from public communicators.

- Developing an approach, a theory, a practice of public sector communication that is as well developed as in marketing and branding but which is developed specifically for public sector communication: That would be phenomenal.

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Michael X. Delli Carpini is Emeritus Professor of Communication & Democracy at the Annenberg School for Communication at Pennsylvania University in the USA.

His research explores the role of the citizen in democratic politics, with particular emphasis on the impact of mass media and information and communication technologies on public opinion, public deliberation, political knowledge, and political participation.

In 2008, Delli Carpini received the Best Book Award from the American Association for Public Opinion Research for his book “What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters”.

In 2020, he contributed to The Handbook of Public Sector Communication, edited by Vilma Luoma‐aho and María‐José Cane, with a chapter betitled “Public Sector Communication and Democracy.”