Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference FalsificationPreference falsification, according to the economist Timur Kuran, is the act of misrepresenting one's wants under perceived social pressures. It happens frequently in everyday life, such as when we tell the host of a dinner party that we are enjoying the food when we actually find it bland. In Private Truths, Public Lies Kuran argues convincingly that the phenomenon not only is ubiquitous but has huge social and political consequences. Drawing on diverse intellectual traditions, including those rooted in economics, psychology, sociology, and political science, Kuran provides a unified theory of how preference falsification shapes collective decisions, orients structural change, sustains social stability, distorts human knowledge, and conceals political possibilities. |
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... Soviet Union . In the mid- 1980s festering economic problems , until then officially denied , con- vinced the top Soviet leadership to call for perestroika ( restructuring ) and glasnost ( public openness ) . Repressed grievances burst ...
... Soviet Union had reached the limits of its tolerance , Gorbachev de- clared on October 25 that his country had no right to interfere in the affairs of its East European neighbors . Defining this position as " the Sinatra doctrine ...
... Soviet Union , see James W. Riordan , " The Revolution from Below : The Role of Letters to the Editor under Peres- troika , " Coexistence , 27 ( December 1990 ) : 269–272 . 15. This point is developed by Giuseppe di Palma ...
Contents
Collective Conservatism | 105 |
The Obstinacy of Communism | 118 |
The Ominous Perseverance of the Caste System | 128 |
Copyright | |
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