Examining the Knowledge and Skills Needed for Democratic Competence

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

Abstract

Political knowledge is one of the most important concepts in political behavior research and is generally viewed as a proxy for democratic competence. As such, political knowledge strongly predicts any number of democracy-enhancing beliefs and behaviors, which taken together, constitute what we call “good democratic citizenship.” Yet, we know little about what cognitive capacities or skills people need for “good democratic citizenship,” including sound democratic decision-making like correct voting. Moreover, traditional measures of political knowledge have been criticized in recent years for lacking measurement validity. In this paper, we draw on classic decision theory to develop a measure of practical or applied political competence that is comprised of several subscales that a) better target the information or knowledge American citizens actually need to make high-quality political decisions, and b) directly measure cognitive styles and skills that should improve decision-making of all types, including political decision-making. We also operationalize the concept of “good democratic citizenship” and administer a survey to both an online and a nationally representative sample. The analysis we present at APSA 2024 will focus on the identification of cognitive skills that enhance “good citizenship” with a focus on good political decision-making (e.g. correct voting).

Authors

• Richard R. Lau, Rutgers University, New Brunswick

• Mona S. Kleinberg, CUNY - Queens College

• Amy Funck, Rutgers University, New Brunswick