Populism and Political Knowledge: The United States in Comparative Perspective

Henry Milner

doi:10.17645/pag.v8i1.2560

Abstract

This article addresses the link between political knowledge and populist attitudes in the United States (US) in comparative perspective. At the beginning of the new decade, populism in the US is associated with support for the Republican party and Donald Trump in particular, and that is how I address it here. Using secondary data from a number of related studies, we find that, overall, support for Trump is not only negatively related to political knowledge, but also to other factors that make his supporters unaware of their being misinformed. This is because, more than for others, partisan cues serve them as a basis for their factual beliefs about political actors and events and assessments of the beliefs of others. While political knowledge has long been comparatively low in the US, as I show in the early part of the article, the relationship between misinformation and populism (i.e., support for Trump) is seen as a new and especially worrisome element. In the concluding section I address what, if anything, could be done to address this situation.

Highlights

In addressing the relationship between low political knowledge and the emergence of populist attitudes, I begin by comparing the political knowledge of Americans to that of people in comparable countries, bringing to bear data based on responses to political knowledge questions in cross-national surveys
By first breaking the results down by generation, I find a trend whereby political knowledge is becoming more dependent on education, and that this is especially true of the United States (US)
The resulting challenge is that of civic literacy: An apparently increasing proportion of voters cannot be counted upon to have the political knowledge needed to act as competent citizens

Summary

Introduction

In addressing the relationship between low political knowledge and the emergence of populist attitudes, I begin by comparing the political knowledge of Americans to that of people in comparable countries, bringing to bear data based on responses to political knowledge questions in cross-national surveys. While it was acknowledged that there would be a group that rejected the premises of liberal democracy based on systematic misinformation, this phenomenon was not given attention in the literature on political knowledge since it was taken for granted that, except in periods of great instability like the 1930s, the workings of liberal democracy would keep such a group to a politically ineffective minority. These assumptions made their way into our methodology. Experts and commentators have taken for granted, as the well-known expression put it, “you can have your own opinion, but not your own facts.” I return to this distinction and its relationship to populist attitudes after first outlining what we know of comparative political knowledge in democratic countries

The Political Knowledge of Americans in Comparative Perspective

Populism and Political Knowledge in the US

Civic and Adult Education and the Media

Electoral Arrangements

Findings

Conclusion