Political Ignorance Research Articles

Political ignorance is both rational and radical

Political ignorance is both rational and radical

‘It’s not our problem’: Czech online discourse on kneeling in football and Black Lives Matter

This article analyses public comments posted under Czech newspapers/media Facebook posts between March and August 2021 which engage with the matter of kneeling and support of Black Lives Matter in football. Findings suggest that there is a certain ignorance of the global politics of race which lead to complex discourses of a) ‘rejection’, b) ‘reverse-racism’, and c) ‘colour-blind’ ideologies. In these three prevalent narratives we also expose racialised and racist discourses in relation to its local context and socio-historical trajectory. Employing the theoretical concepts of ‘colonial exceptionalism’ and ‘Eastern-Europeanism’, the article captures some of the local roots of this racism in Czechia. We conclude that football enthusiast in Czech society tend to flag their own victimized positioning as ‘other’ Europeans who have also seen oppression rather than engaging with their whiteness and Europeanness as a global privilege.

Political neutrality as an indicator of professional prosecution

The relevance of the topic is determined by the importance of the principle of political neutrality as a preventive factor of the prosecutor's professional activity, which is designed to protect him/her from external influence of any political force and emergence of personal illegal interests in the context of social cataclysms). The purpose of the article is to examine the professional activity of a prosecutor through understanding of its principles as indicative characteristics of professional skill and professionalism. To confirm this, the author chose functionalism as the main methodological approach, which gave him grounds to assert that the functions of activity determine professional skill (the prosecutor's profession), and the principles determine professionalism (the level of mastering this profession). The following methods were used as auxiliary methods: formal-logical (for a reasoned presentation of the research material), formal-dogmatic (for the analysis of current regulatory documents) and comparative legal (for comparing the analyzed material). The main results of the study show that the principle of political neutrality is a requirement in the field of professional activity of civil servants not only in Ukraine, but also in the European Union, integration with which is defined as the main vector of further development of our country. A distinction should be made between political neutrality and the synonymous concepts of political impartiality and independence, apoliticality and non-partisanship. At the same time, it is shown that political neutrality is one of the most important criteria in formulating requirements for professional selection, training, advanced training and professional activities of prosecutors. The practical value of the study is to warn prosecutors against political ignorance which may arise due to a misunderstanding of political neutrality. In order to avoid or overcome this negative aspect, the author proposes a number of factors for the prosecutor's professional excellence, which is described using a peculiar formula: the prosecutor's professional excellence can be viewed as the sum of political, media and information and environmental literacy divided by political neutrality.

Попытка реализации проекта «новый советский человек» в контексте региональных потребностей. На материале политпросвета Ставропольского округа в 1924–1925 гг.

The article deals with the process of party and state leadership in the area of cultural and educational work on the local level due to the strategic goal – upbringing «a new man» for communist future. It was revealed that in the process of implementing this goal in the regions, the task of matching the actions of local authorities with the formal requirements of the Center was brought to the fore and at the same time the issues that arose from the needs of the local community were resolved. Those were the difficulties of financial support, human resources at cultural and educational organizations and their work as well. The authors make the reconstruction of the main directions of cultural and educational work: schools, reading rooms, rural clubs, clubs, museums, libraries as the means for enlightenment and ideological and political influence on the adult, capable of functioning population of the country. On the local level the aim of the formation a “new man” was brought to a certain social practice, which was not always accepted with joy by the local population. On the one hand, it was an attempt to overcome the political ignorance of people, especially in the countryside, and on the other hand, all political and educational activities were seen as a means of attracting local residents to active social work. To a certain extent, it solved the problem linear personnel and fostered loyalty to the Soviet authority. The authors pay great attention to the elimination of illiteracy, which faced with the passivity of the population in the middle of 1920s. In the work, a great place is given to the financing all these activities, which was shifted to the regional budgets. In Stavropol, they were enhanced by the poverty of the district budget, the remoteness of the district from the Center and the relatively late final establishment of Soviet power in the region.

Political Ignorance and the Internet

Abstract We examine the link between Internet usage and political ignorance. To do so, we construct a novel index measuring individuals’ indifference with respect to political issues, which determines the degree of individual political ignorance. Our descriptive econometric analysis is based on a rich dataset consisting of six surveys of individuals covering the time period 2001–2014 and being representative for the German electorate. The empirical results show that in earlier years of Internet diffusion, there is a negative link between using the Internet and political ignorance. This link changes sign in later years of Internet diffusion. We discuss potential explanations of this observed change in the link such as information overload and the increase in heterogeneity of Internet users.

Supplex Libellus / Aller vnderthenigiste Supplication

Abstract After the Battle of White Mountain (November 8, 1620), a series of satirical propaganda writings were published against Frederick V of the Palatinate, who had triggered the Thirty Years’ War with his thoughtless takeover of the Bohemian crown. Several of these writings presented themselves as parodic letters of complaint from the ‘Winter King’ to opponents of the war or to (former) allies. In each case, the aim was to ridicule the young monarch’s military inexperience, political ignorance and grotesque hubris. There is a fictitious letter published in both a Latin (Supplex libellus) and German version (Aller vnderthenigiste Supplication) at the beginning of 1621, which was addressed to Emperor Ferdinand II. In complete misjudgment of the military and political situation, Frederick V strives for far-reaching compensation for the defeat he has suffered and has absurd visions in which he even sees himself as a future Roman King. This study first outlines the historical and publicistic context of the letters, then gives a brief summary and finally offers a comparative analysis of the two texts. It pursues a literary approach and investigates the extent to which the satirical intention of the anonymous authors is supported by the choice of letter fiction.

Public discourse and its problems

It is widely believed that open and public speech is at the heart of the democratic ideal. Public discourse is instrumentally epistemically valuable for identifying good policies, as well as necessary for resisting domination (e.g. by vocally challenging decision-makers, demanding public justifications, and using democratic speech to hold leaders accountable). But in our highly polarized and socially fragmented political environment, an increasingly pressing question is: Do actual democratic societies live up to the ideal of inclusive public speech? In this essay, I explore Maxime Lepoutre's defense of discursive democracy from the challenge of defective public discourse. I argue that political ignorance, dogmatism, and social fragmentation present more formidable challenges to discursive democracy than Lepoutre acknowledges.

When Political Ignorance is really harmful for Democracy: Moral Intuitions and Biased Attitudes in Voting Behaviour

Ignorance about political related issues has long been considered a threat to democracy. This paper revolves around the concept of political ignorance, focusing especially on Ilya Somin’s book Democracy and Political Ignorance and going beyond his standpoint in two ways. First of all, it moves away from the notion of factual knowledge by showing that political ignorance cannot be limited to a matter of information quality. On the contrary, it shows that ignorance concerns the formation of opinions about political facts, which are the bricks with which disagreement is built. Then, using the insights of the Moral Foundation Theory by Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues, the paper argues that moral intuitions represent an additional source of bias that current research on the problem of voters’ ignorance should address. While Somin argues that biased moral values are the outcome of ignorance, Moral Foundation Theory suggests that moral intuitions are a robust determinant of people’s political views as they make factual knowledge partially irrelevant and also make people with different moral minds unable to understand the basis of reciprocal factual argumentations.

Political Understanding

AbstractPublic opinion research has shown that voters accept many falsehoods about politics. This observation is widely considered troubling for democracy – and especially participatory ideals of democracy. I argue that this influential narrative is nevertheless flawed because it misunderstands the nature of political understanding. Drawing on philosophical examinations of scientific modelling, I demonstrate that accepting falsehoods within one's model of political reality is compatible with – and indeed can positively enhance – one's understanding of that reality. Thus, the observation that voters accept many political falsehoods does not necessarily establish that they lack political understanding. I then address three worries: that voters cannot generally engage in such political modelling; that political modelling obscures facts that are crucial to political understanding; and that successful political modelling would require knowing that one's model contains falsehoods. My responses reveal how, going forward, we should measure political ignorance, and they highlight the standing importance of participatory democracy.

Manifestation of People’s Participation in The Existing Local Government Acts in Bangladesh

Whether it is agenda setting, policy formulation or implementation, people’s participation at all levels of policy process, decision-making and service delivery has become the prime prerequisite in the prevailing development paradigm. Although in practice there remains huge argument regarding people’s effective involvement in the development process due to unwillingness of the supply side and inefficiency, political ignorance of the demand end, it is an undeniable fact that the government of Bangladesh in the recent past has enacted laws for all levels of local government bodies with especial focus given on the people’s participation in different phases of development process. This study aims at reconnaissance of the degree of rights and opportunity given to the general people to participate in the development process presented in the existing Local Government Acts, both in rural and urban local government tiers. The study mainly focuses on the secondary sources, exclusively on the existing Local Government Acts and ordinances. The study finds that all acts have significantly included the opportunities for local people to participate in the decision-making process. It is interesting to say that the lower the tier of local government, the higher opportunity to participate in decision making process. Social Science Review, Vol. 38(1), June 2021 Page 1-16

ENGLISH: An Analytical Study of the Modern Muslim Politics in the Light of the Moderate Political Policies of the Prophet (PBUH)

This research aims to discuss the contemporary situation of modern Muslim politics in the light of the political vision of the Prophet (pbuh). It explores that contrary to the prevailing system of the world politics which was based on the religious and ethnic prides, injustice and class system, the Holy Prophet (pbuh) introduced the concept of moderate politics by establishing the principles of harmony, reconciliation and admiration of other religions that resulted in the economic prosperity and political stability of the whole nation. However, the contemporary Muslim world seems upset regarding its political policies and suffering from the issues of extremism, religious conflicts, sectarianism, and lack of reconciliation that put the modern Muslim world into chaos and law and order situation. This research thus, concludes that all this because of the ignorance of the moderate politics of the Prophet (pbuh). It suggests following the political steps of our Last Prophet (pbuh) to achieve economic prosperity and political stability in the Muslim states.
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Religious identity and politics: Exploring the causes of the political persecution of religious minorities in Kohat District, Pakistan

Religious minorities are victims of political isolation and persecution in societies, where they are subject to violence and discrimination. This study was undertaken in a terrorism-affected area to explore those elements that subjugate and suppress religious minorities’ political participation and representation. To conduct an in-depth analysis, a qualitative inquiry was used for data collection and analysis. The researcher interviewed 13 Christians, seven Hindus, and six Sikhs, using a purposive sampling technique and a semi-structured interview guide. The primary data were analyzed using the thematic analysis technique. The researcher found that some of the underlying factors behind the political persecution are leadership vacuum, political neglect, post-election negligence, vote dislocation, political ignorance, and political subordination. This study presented a framework for policymakers to solve minorities’ political problems, and for researchers to better understand the minorities’ political oppression on local and international levels.

The expertocratic shortcut

Lafont rightly criticizes the expertocratic shortcut, i.e. the expectation that citizens blindly defer to experts. This shortcut is based on the assumptions that citizens are generally politically ignorant. I will argue that it is necessary to address not only the political ignorance of citizens, but also that of politicians, scientific experts and entrepreneurs. Just like politicians, scientific experts often show political ignorance towards citizens. This is the case if they do not consider the perspective of citizens in politically charged research. Unlike Lafont, I believe that if citizens are expected to blindly defer to politicians, there is no expertocratic shortcut, but a form of authoritarianism that fosters populism. Lafont overlooks an expertocratic shortcut: scientific experts who expect politicians to blindly defer to them, i.e. to accept the agenda they set. It is noteworthy that neither Lafont nor her opponents defending an expertocratic shortcut explicitly discuss the tension between capitalism and democracy. They should do so in order to explain which citizens are ignorant and bypassed, and which are not. The socio-economic inequalities inherent in capitalism correspond to the degree of political interest and participation of citizens. Entrepreneurs are often not only politically ignorant towards citizens, but also towards politicians and scientific experts. Their political ignorance is due to the fact that they are most often in a dominant position where politicians, scientific experts and citizens depend on them. This can be traced back to what I call the neoliberal shortcut: the expectation that actors blindly defer to the markets.

Political Ignorance and the Internet

Political Ignorance and the Internet

Peacekeeping Potential of the Collective Security Treaty Organization

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), as an international regional organization, unites states that have common principles for ensuring collective security in the post-Soviet space. In addition to military, political, anti-terrorist, anti-drug, migration aspects, the Organizations practical activities provide for the implementation of peacekeeping missions in the region, as well as beyond. Over the past decade, the CSTO has been systematically raising the level of its readiness to respond to various types of threats, interacting with both states and other international organizations in this area. The purpose of this article is to assess the current state of the CSTO peacekeeping activity, to identify its strengths and weaknesses, and possible ways to increase the effectiveness of peacekeeping. The scientific novelty of the research lays in the consideration, on the basis of a retrospective analysis, of the actual state of the political, military, information components of the Organizations peacekeeping, which at the present time, obviously, have not yet reached their maximum efficiency. The author examines the reasons for the creation of the CSTO, the historical stages of the Organizations interaction with the UN, the practical aspects of their cooperation. Special attention is paid to the existing relationship between the member states within the Organization itself, to the political problems of the perception of the CSTO by other subjects of international law as an equal partner. It notes its complete political ignorance on the part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the presence of bilateral contacts with most member states. In conclusion, the author comes to the conclusion that the Organization is currently experiencing an identity crisis and does not show sufficient efficiency in the context of the implementation of close allied relations in the system of ensuring regional security.

“Von Nun an ist der Staat zugleich die höchste Poesie.” Satirizing the Viennese Märzrevolution

This article explores the way in which two dramatic satires criticized the shortcomings of the Viennese Märzrevolution. As opposed to the typically “partisan” nature of a satire that attacks either revolutionaries or reactionaries, Johann Nestroy’s Freiheit in Krähwinkel (1848) and Eduard von Bauernfeld’s Die Republik der Thiere (1848) both turn their satiric barbs against all political positions. To accomplish this, they use satiric popular culture to create a lowbrow version of “aesthetic education,” attacking the political naiveté of liberal revolutionaries and the insidious scheming of reactionaries. Bauernfeld’s drama uses an “aesthetic state” run by animals to highlight the general political ignorance of the revolutionary period, while Nestroy utilizes the intrigues of a wily newspaper agent to lambast both reaction and revolution. Ultimately, these two dramas showcase the power of satire to clear the discursive ground as a propaedeutic for a more reasoned future, acting thusly in the vein of idealist aesthetics even as they attack political idealism for its real failures.

정치적 무지에 대한 무지 : 실제 지식과 인지된 지식이 정치 참여에 미치는 효과 분석

정치 지식이 낮은 집단이 자신의 지식 수준을 과대평가하고 적극적으로 정치에 참여하는 현상을 어떻게 보아야 할까? 본 연구는 메타 인지 능력과 더닝-크루거 효과(Dunning-Kruger effect)를 이론적 근거로 이 문제를 풀어보았다. 구체적으로 본 연구는 온라인 설문조사를 통해 실제 정치 지식, 인지된 정치 지식, 정치 참여, 뉴스 이용, 정치 대화 등을 측정하였다. 분석 결과, 정치 지식 수준이 낮은 집단은 자신의 지식수준을 실제보다 높게 평가하는 반면, 정치 지식 수준이 높은 집단은 자신의 지식 수준을 실제보다 낮게 평가했다. 정치 지식 수준이 낮은 집단의 이와 같은 과신은 자신의 무지에 대한 무지 때문인 것으로 나타났다. 이를 통해 정치 지식의 영역에서도 더닝-크루거 효과가 재현됨을 확인하였다. 또한 정치 지식이 높은 집단은 관습적 정치 참여를, 낮은 집단은 슬랙티비즘 유형이 정치 참여를 즐기는 것으로 분석되었다. 인지된 정치 지식은 이런 영향 관계를 증폭시키는 조절변인으로 기능하였다. 또한 자신의 정치 지식 수준에 대한 오인을 개선하기 위해서는 정치 대화가 유용한 것으로 드러났다. 그러나 뉴스 이용은 유의미한 도움을 주지 못하였다. 본 연구는 그동안 정치커뮤니케이션 영역에서 논의되어 온 정치 지식을 사회심리학적 관점으로 개념을 확장하고 풍부한 해석을 더했다는 의의를 갖는다.

Political meritocracy and the troubles of Western democracies

Confucian meritocratic rule has been recently advocated on the basis of the economic performance of Western democracies and the political ignorance of their average voters. These arguments are grounded in the analyses of real phenomena, but they are insufficient to establish the greater effectiveness of political meritocracy over democracy. This does not mean that the principle of political meritocracy (a principle of government that aims to strengthen the role of the competent and the morally good ones) is irrelevant to the solution of some of the troubles affecting contemporary democracies. On the contrary, such a principle could play a significant role in designing auxiliary institutional mechanisms to strengthen the quality of political leadership in a democracy.

Does sophistication increase partisan bias? Evidence from a cross-national analysis

ABSTRACT Recently, considerable theoretical literature has emerged on voters’ sophistication and its effect on democratic functioning. Some works argue that the political choices of more sophisticated voters lead to more favourable social outcomes (Brennan, 2017. Against democracy. Princeton University Press; Somin, 2016. Democracy and political ignorance: Why smaller government is smarter. Stanford University Press). However, Achen and Bartels (2016. Democracy for realists: Why elections do not produce Responsive government. Princeton University Press) argue that sophisticated citizens are at least as biased as the unsophisticated. This paper aims to clarify this link by investigating the role of education, information acquisition, and interest on bias. The question is tested on European Social Survey data. The results show that the level of bias is independent of education but is significantly related to both interest and newspaper reading. The findings fully support the interpretation of Achen and Bartels (2016. Democracy for Realists: Why elections do not produce responsive government. Princeton University Press) on the effect of sophistication.

The psychological foundations of rational ignorance: biased heuristics and decision costs

Rational ignorance and related models of voter choice have been accused of psychological implausibility or even incoherence. Although such models run counter to folk psychological understandings of choice, this paper argues that they are consistent with widely-accepted dual process theories of cognition. Specifically, I suggest that political ignorance can be explained via a “default-interventionist” account in which a biased intuitive subsystem produces automatic responses which are overridden by rational reflection when the prospective costs of error are significant. This is consistent with rational ignorance and related theories of political ignorance and bias. Providing stronger psychological foundations for rational ignorance also suggests new ways in which the theory might be developed to increase its predictive, analytic, and evaluative power.