This book addresses opinion leadership in democratic politics as a process whereby individuals send and receive information through their informally based networks of political communication.

1. Experts, activists, and self-educating electorates T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt and John Barry Ryan; 2. The imperatives of interdependence T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt and John Barry Ryan; 3. Experts, activists, and the social communication of political expertise T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt, Jeanette Mendez, Tracy Osborn and John Barry Ryan; 4. Unanimity, discord, and opportunities for opinion leadership T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt, Jeanette Mendez and John Barry Ryan; 5. Informational asymmetries among voters T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt and John Barry Ryan; 6. Expertise and bias in political communication networks T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt, Alexander K. Mayer and John Barry Ryan; 7. Interdependence, communication, and calculation T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt and John Barry Ryan; 8. Partisanship and the efficacy of social communication in constrained environments John Barry Ryan; 9. Noise, bias, and expertise: the dynamics of becoming informed Robert Huckfeldt, Matthew Pietryka and Jack Reilly; 10. Opinion leaders, expertise, and the complex dynamics of political communication Robert Huckfeldt, Matthew Pietryka and Jack Reilly; 11. Experts, activists, and democratic prospects T. K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt and John Barry Ryan.

T. K. Ahn is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Seoul National University. His work has been published in a number of journals, including the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Political Psychology, the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Public Economic Theory, and the Journal of Economy Psychology. He has received the Paul Lazarsfeld Award from the American Political Science Association for the best paper on political communication. He received his PhD from Indiana University, Bloomington.