Elaborating a Multi-Level Framework for Studying Political Knowledge

• In Event: Political Knowledge, Civic Competence, and Democracy

Abstract

Much of the research on political knowledge focuses on the public’s knowledge about national politics and presumes that low-levels of knowledge at that level indicates an ill-informed public. However, living in a multi-level political system, Americans may simply choose to focus more of their time and effort on understanding local and/or state politics. To understand the extent to which the American public is able to act as an informed citizenry, more efforts are needed to assess the extent to which individuals understand politics across the different levels of government. This paper conducts one of the first studies of knowledge about local, state, and national politics and examines the extent to which issue salience and responsibility attributions explains whether an individual knows more about local, state, or national politics. The preliminary findings suggest both that the American public knows more about politics than depicted in the literature and that the salience of issues under local, state, and national jurisdictions influences where people focus their attention.

Authors

• Nicholas J. Clark, Susquehanna University

• Todd Makse, Florida International University