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Abstract
This essay explores the role of misinformation from partisan think tanks in distorting policy debates. It argues that there are two dimensions to disagreements in policy debates in a democracy: a normative dimension and a factual. These disagreements are reconcilable, especially when agenda setting mechanisms focus political actors on a narrow range of well-defined problems. Policy debates become unreconcilable when disagreements extend to the factual dimension. The essay then explores the role of partisan think tanks in fostering factual disagreements through misinformation.
