What do Americans Know about Politics?

1. What do Americans Know about Politics? • 74% can name the VP • 70% can name their mayor • 58% know that constitutionality is decided by the Supreme Court • 55% can name at least one Senator • 40% can name their congressional representative • 34% can name the Secretary of State • 25% can name the Speaker of the House • 8% can name the Chief Justice of the U.S.

2. Rational Ignorance Anthony Downs Benefit I > Cost I Where “I” is gathering and learning political information

3. Levels of Conceptualization • Ideologues – Rely on abstract ideological concepts to make judgments about political objects. • Near-Ideologues – Use ideological terminology, but don’t always use it correctly • Group Interest – Evaluate political objects with respect to their treatment of particular groups • Nature of the Times – Evaluations of candidates and parties are tied to general perceptions about how things are going. • No Issue Content – Focus on personalities or family traditions without any evidence of political thinking.

4. Converse’s 1964 Study of Belief Systems • Constraint • Attitudes are linked to each other • One attitude can be predicted from another • The Studies • Asked opinions of the day • Asked likes and dislikes about parties and candidates • Survey of candidates for Congress - 1958

5. Looking for Evidence of Political Ideology • Active use of ideological concepts in likes and dislikes of candidates and parties • Issue attitudes that are consistently liberal or conservative • Attitudes that are stable over time

6. Converse’s Findings regarding Constraint

7. Ideological Evaluation of Parties 1952-1972

8. Ideological Evaluation of Candidates 1952-1972

9. Changing Levels of Educational Attainment

10. Levels of Conceptualization by Education