Higher Levels Of Political Knowledge Research Articles

Does Private School Choice Threaten Democracy? Evidence from Private and Public Schools in New York City and Dallas/Fort Worth

A major concern in the ongoing debate over school choice is whether private schools help to increase their students’ levels of tolerance necessary for a functioning democracy in the United States. Over 40 years ago, scholars at the University of Minnesota created a survey which measured political knowledge, political tolerance, perceived threats from opposing groups, and support for democratic norms anchored in each respondent’s view of the political group they find most distasteful. In 1997, researchers at various universities used a similar survey instrument to derive responses from students in eighth-grade social studies classes who were enrolled in seven public and twenty-four private schools in New York City and Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. Those original data remained archived and unexamined for decades. We analyze those data using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and rigorous Nearest Neighbor Matching (NNM) methods based on propensity scores. We find that students who attended private schools demonstrate higher levels of political knowledge and stronger support for democratic norms when compared to observationally similar students who attended public schools.

Objective conditions, political knowledge, and perceptions of electoral competition in U.S. mayoral elections

AbstractObjectiveThis article investigates the extent to which perceptions of the competitive context of mayoral elections reflect actual levels of competition and how that relationship is shaped by political expertise.MethodsWe use a unique survey data set of more than 6000 respondents interviewed in 40 separate mayoral elections.ResultsIn broad strokes, people living in competitive cities are more likely than others to predict competitive outcomes. However, in keeping with the knowledge gap hypothesis, the relationship between objective levels of competition and perceived levels of competition is much stronger among those with relatively high levels of political knowledge than those with low levels of political knowledge.ConclusionsThe connection between actual and perceived conditions does not hold evenly for all segments of society—the information‐rich respond to their political environment, while the information‐poor are relatively unmoved by that environment. This pattern of asymmetric information acquisition is a familiar one in American politics and provides further evidence of an important source of political inequality.

Metaphors, political knowledge and the basic income debate in Belgium

Abstract The framing impact of political discourses has long been attested for. Metaphors in particular are known to ease the understanding of complex concepts and processes. Yet, the question remains to what extent metaphors do work the same on different recipients? Based on an experimental design, we test a potentially key moderating variable in the study of political metaphors: political knowledge. Our experiment aims at determining the extent to which the confrontation of individuals to arguments and metaphors impacts their preferences regarding the implementation of a basic income in Belgium. In particular, we hypothesize that the marginal effect of metaphors as cognitive shortcuts decreases when political knowledge increases. Our findings suggest that some metaphorical frames are more successful than others, hereby supporting the idea that the aptness of the metaphorical frame is a key factor when conducting experiments. We conclude that political knowledge is an important variable when analyzing the framing effect of metaphors, especially when it goes about very low or very high levels of political knowledge. The insertion of metaphors in political discourses may easily succeed in rallying individuals behind a given cause, but this would only work if participants have a lower knowledge of politics.

POLITICAL ABSENTEEISM IN "LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES" AS AN ACADEMIC AND NORMATIVE PROBLEM

The relevance of the study is determined by the significant and steady decline in the level of citizen participation in political and public life in recent decades in so-called liberal democracies, which cannot guarantee a fair value of political freedoms for all their members. In this light, the purpose of our study is to identify and reveal the problem areas of the study of "political absenteeism" in so-called liberal democracies. The study is based on a systemic and interdisciplinary approach, as well as on a critical approach, the use of which allowed to determine the relevance and originality of our research. Special scientific methods were also used: content analysis and the method of reconstruction. They allowed us to critically rethink the existing approaches to the study of "political absenteeism" and "electoral absenteeism". It turns out that so-called liberal democracies do not currently guarantee a fair price for political freedoms for their poorest (and usually less enlightened and younger) members. "Liberal democracies" may no longer be able (or, indeed, willing) to provide the necessary conditions for citizens to articulate their demands in a way that others can understand and accept and feel as citizens united in one coherent political team. There is not only a concentration of power and influence among the newest associations, but also a strengthening of the ruling "political" class, whose members tend to have a higher socio-economic status, participate more actively in various formal and informal political activities, and have higher levels of political knowledge and influence, along with an "apolitical" class whose members have lower socio-economic status, participate less actively in politics and have lower levels of political knowledge and influence.

Investigating the role of valenced framing in perceptions of good governance

ABSTRACT Media play a vital role in strengthening and promoting good governance. This study explores how valenced frames affect perceptions of good governance by examining two governance issues (Flint water crisis and Syrian refugee crisis). The study reveals that participants exposed to good governance framing of issues yield higher approval of government performance than participants exposed to bad governance news stories. An analysis of moderating influence of political knowledge reveals that participants with higher levels of political knowledge are more susceptible to valence framing effect, but this pattern is only found in the case of Syrian refugees. These findings contribute to a growing body of research and literature around valence framing effect. The study then addresses these results in the context of on-going critical governance issues.

Party cues and incumbent assessments under multilevel governance

Abstract Politicians' party membership allows voters to overcome incomplete information issues. In this article, we maintain that such ‘party cues’ in multilevel governance structures also induce voters to incorporate their assessment of incumbents at one level of government into their assessment of incumbents at other levels of government. Moreover, we argue that these assessment ‘spillovers’ increase in magnitude with voters' level of political information. They become particularly prominent for voters with higher levels of political knowledge and interest as well as during election periods (when information is less costly and more readily available). Empirical analyses using survey data from Germany covering the period 1990 to 2018 corroborate our theoretical propositions.

Testing political knowledge as a mediator of the relationship between news use and affective polarization

ABSTRACT Fueled by news media, affective polarization is on the rise in the United States. This study tests the possibility that people learn to be polarized from news by investigating whether political knowledge mediates the relationship between news use and affective polarization. Analysis of the 2016 American National Election Studies (ANES) survey (N = 4,271) shows that news media use is associated with higher levels of political knowledge, and also that higher levels of political knowledge are associated with increases in affective polarization. We find that those who actively use news media are more likely to have political knowledge, which, in turn, leads them to have more polarized attitudes toward candidates. The findings of the current study are discussed in light of scholarly conversations on affective polarization in American politics.

Internet and social media use and political knowledge: Evidence from Turkey

ABSTRACT What are the implications of citizens turning to online sources for news and information about politics? As the Internet and social media have become popular sources of news and information about politics, there has been a growing interest in understanding how this trend affects political knowledge. In this article, we analyze the effects of the Internet and social media use on the Turkish electorate’s political knowledge drawing on an original, nationally representative survey fielded in 2015. We find that Internet use is positively associated with higher levels of political knowledge among the Turkish electorate, even after controlling for several relevant factors. At the same time, however, social media users are more likely to be misinformed and more likely to be opinionated about politics than non-users. Overall, the effects of the Internet on political knowledge seem to be multi-faceted and depend on which platforms people resort to getting their news.

Learning from Divided Parties? Legislator Dissent as a Cue for Opinion Formation

Scholars have generally seen united parties as normatively desirable. However, little work has explored the implications of divided parties for public opinion. This article examines whether legislator dissent reduces public support for the policy positions of divided parties. Dissent can do this in two ways: by undermining the consistency of party cues sent to co-partisans of the divided party; or by providing a signal regarding the likely distance of the policy proposal from citizen preferences. These possibilities are evaluated here using a survey experiment. Respondents were exposed to mock news articles about a debate on a bill that manipulated the presence of dissent on government benches and its spatial location—either proximate to the opposition party or located on the government party’s ideological flank. Legislator dissent appears to reduce the support of government policy for opposition co-partisans, but only when it is centrist and for those with high levels of political knowledge. These results suggest legislator dissent can act as a cue, if a complex one, to help citizens form policy evaluations in line with their preferences.

Fast, frugal and correct? An experimental study on the influence of time scarcity and quantity of information on the voter decision making process

Classical theories of political representation claim that high levels of political knowledge and awareness across the electorate are crucial for a well-functioning democracy. In real life, though, the actual amount of political information possessed by voters is small and unevenly distributed. In addition, electoral decision making is complex and often characterized by severe time pressure. This study therefore experimentally tests the theoretical framework of “fast and frugal” voters and the “less-is-more effect” (Gigerenzer and Goldstein in Psychol Rev 103(4):650–669, 1996), which expects that in some instances low levels of political knowledge may actually result in equally good or even better outcomes than in the case of well-informed decisions. It is hence assumed that employing specific cognitive shortcuts can help voters make good and quick decisions, even with a lack of information. We have used a laboratory experiment to create an environment characterized by severe time pressure that allowed for only shallow information search and limited comparisons across alternatives. Subjects were able to base their decisions only on a small number of criteria operationalized by candidates’ positions on current political issues with various levels of perceived salience. Voters appear to simplify decision making by focusing mainly on those policy attitudes they consider important. Consequently, it seems that shifting the decision-making strategy from accuracy to efficiency has no effect on the final outcome.

News Engagement on Social Media and Democratic Citizenship: Direct and Moderating Roles of Curatorial News Use in Political Involvement

Social media allow users not only to read news, but also to evaluate, reconstruct, and share it. This study conceptualizes curatorial news use via social media as an important news use behavior, which involves evaluating the existing news, adding new values by reconstructing it, and then sharing it with other social media users. An analysis of survey data from 650 South Korean adults shows that curatorial news use on social media has a significantly positive association with political knowledge, internal political efficacy, and offline and online political participation. The interaction of social media news use and curatorial news use is also significantly associated with high levels of political knowledge and political participation.

Media Diversity Policies for the Public: Empirical Evidence Examining Exposure Diversity and Democratic Citizenship

The pursuit of media diversity as a policy goal finds its foundation in First Amendment values which assume that the public welfare requires broad dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources. Using 5 waves of panel data collected during the 2008 presidential campaign in the U.S., this article empirically examines the assumption that seeking diverse and antagonistic viewpoints reflects good citizenship. The results suggest that heavy consumption of liberal and conservative viewpoints together leads to higher levels of political knowledge, but suppresses political participation. The role of news media use in democratic citizenship might depend on quantity as well as on diversity.

Partisanship and Perceptions of Party-Line Voting in Congress

This paper explores public perceptions of congressional partisanship in an era of polarized parties. We use data from a module on the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) that asks respondents about the voting behavior of their legislators. Our results show that individuals underestimate the extent to which legislators from their own party vote the party line—even when primed with information about high levels of party-line voting in Congress—while fairly accurately perceiving levels of unity in the opposing party. We also find evidence that this perceptual gap endures, and at times widens, at higher levels of political knowledge and in the presence of elections. Finally, in a separate experiment, we explore how voters respond to differential levels of party-line voting by a hypothetical legislator. The combined results from the experiment and CCES module suggest voters’ perceptions often align with what allows them to have the most favorable impression of their party’s senators or unfavorable impression of the other party’s senators. The results suggest that biases in how voters process information about levels of partisanship in Congress may limit accountability in meaningful ways.

Public Support for Campaign Finance Reform: The Role of Policy Narratives, Cultural Predispositions, and Political Knowledge in Collective Policy Preference Formation

ObjectiveWe use the variation in public support for campaign finance reform (CFR) to determine factors important to collective policy preference formation.MethodsUsing a national survey, we factor analyze the latent dimensions of various reforms, and rely on an experimental design to explain the role policy narratives, cultural theory (CT), and political knowledge play in preference formation.ResultsThe reform debate groups along three dimensions: (1) strengthening limitations and regulations, (2) deregulating campaign finance, or (3) ending the dependence on private money altogether. We show policy narratives are most influential, and CT has more explanatory value, among those with higher levels of political knowledge. Certain policy narratives tend to increase support for CFR across all cultural types, including those who most oppose reforms that seek to end the dependence on private money.ConclusionAs awareness of campaign finance increases, and as particular narratives become salient, we would expect increasing support for public financing, free media time, and/or public matching funds among those with higher levels of general political knowledge.

She Was Born in a Small Town: The Advantages and Disadvantages in Political Knowledge and Efficacy for Rural Girls

ABSTRACTRecent work suggests that girls learn more about politics and are more efficacious in places with less conflict and greater homogeneity. Given that rural communities are often more homogeneous than metropolitan areas across several dimensions, this article asks whether young girls growing up in rural communities have higher levels of political knowledge and efficacy than those in more urban, diverse communities. It argues that the average girl benefits from the stronger social bonds between residents in smaller places, but young women who hold minority views about the importance of equality are likely to suffer in their levels of knowledge and efficacy. Being in the minority seems to be particularly difficult for girls in smaller places. This article raises questions about the ways in which gender gaps vary across different places and the varying effects of minority status.

The Complicated Relation Between News Frames and Political Trust: A Case Study of Romania

This study tests through an experiment the hypothesis that heavy emphasis on conflicts in the news undermines political trust and has an impact on citizens’ cynicism and political participation. Findings do not support a uniform negative impact of the conflicts covered in the news but demonstrate a cumulative effect of their levels of intrusiveness and incivility. In addition, we found consistent evidence that personal characteristics influence people’s reactions to conflicts. For extrovert individuals, who are typically more assertive in public matters, have higher levels of political knowledge and feel more politically efficacious, exposure to conflict frames does not necessarily result in lower political trust.

The Educative Effects of Extreme Television Media

This article investigates whether exposure to extreme television media informs citizens about politics. Using lab experiments with both student and non-student samples, I find that extreme media produce higher levels of political knowledge and that they also produce higher levels of negative affect among viewers compared with control groups. I also show that extreme media are at least as informative as traditional news. This research adds to the growing literature on media effects in a polarized media environment, showing that extreme television media can have a beneficial impact on at least one important area of U.S. politics: citizen competence. To account for external validity and popular conceptions on extreme media’s non-informative nature, I use cross-sectional data from the 2008 National Annenberg Election Survey finding that extreme television viewership correlates with greater political knowledge, while controlling for other known predictors.

Political information repertoires and political participation

This study examines the relationship between various forms of media use and political participation. The major argument is that in today’s high-choice media environment, individuals and groups with the highest level of political interest are more likely to develop richer political information repertoires that involve exploiting both digital and traditional ways of searching for political information. Individuals and groups with richer political information repertories can be expected to have higher levels of political knowledge, efficacy, and participation. This article argues further that a clear connection exists between peoples’ informational and participatory repertoires and tests these propositions using a large, heterogeneous sample of the Israeli public during the 2013 election campaign. The analysis supports the claims of this study, with a few intriguing exceptions.

Prospects for Campaign Finance Reform: The Role of Policy Narratives, Cultural Predispositions, and Political Knowledge in Collective Policy Preference Formation

Objective: Although campaign finance is a growing concern, pollsters rarely ask the public about reform. We use the variation in public support for campaign finance reform to determine factors important to collective policy preference formation. Methods: Using a national survey, we factor analyze the latent dimensions of various reforms, and rely on an experimental design to explain the role cultural theory, policy narratives, and political knowledge plays in preference formation. Results: The reform debate groups along two dimensions: adding or removing limitations, or ending the dependence on money altogether. We show policy narratives are most influential, and cultural theory has more explanatory value, among those with higher levels of political knowledge, and policy narratives tend to increase support among those who already support reform, and mitigate the opposition from other cultural types. Conclusion: If it were up to the public, prospects for campaign finance reform, even public financing, would be high.

Simulations Build Efficacy: Empirical Results from a Four-Week Congressional Simulation

This article describes a four-week congressional committee simulation implemented in upper level courses on Congress and the Legislative process at two liberal arts colleges. We find that the students participating in the simulation possessed high levels of political knowledge and confidence in their political skills prior to the simulation. An analysis of pre- and posttest surveys indicates that students experienced significant increases in their self-assessed understanding of the political process, the ability to persuade others to support political positions, and the ability to work with diverse groups to accomplish political goals. Additionally, students without prior internship experience reported notable and statistically significant gains in self-assessed political skills and efficacy. These findings suggest that, for students who cannot participate in an internship, participating in a simulation may generate many of the same benefits.