Hierarchy in Political Discussion
Sean Richey
Sean Richey, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University wrote an article in May 2009 entitled: “Hierarchy in Political Discussion”. I personally find the article interesting in terms of explaining that when superiors provide political discussion, the similarity of votes tends to increase however this does not guarantee the improvement of the political knowledge.
The article takes Japan as a case in point because of its high social hierarchy; Interestingly enough to know that women in this first world country are socially inferior to men.
In cultures like Japan -as Richey clarifies- the influence of hierarchy will cause a decrease in the amount of educative discussion.
I agree that great potential for political discussion is beneficial in promoting democracy.
Finally, Sean Richey suggests that the role of hierarchy should be examined while looking at the role of social networks in opinion formation.
Silence in political discussion is always adopted everywhere in the world and this is to be discussed in future research and hopefully changed.
