The question of why people abstain from voting has been extensively analysed and discussed in previous research. One line of research particularly emphasizes education when explaining non-voting and highlights education as a resource needed in democracies. Yet despite the continued expansion of formal education, voter turnout has declined over time. This puzzle needs to be addressed: Our paper asks whether democracy can be learned. Focusing on voter turnout, we conducted focus group discussions to learn who can be brought back to the polls and how, using the concept of passive citizenship. The results show, firstly, that political knowledge is generally underdeveloped. Secondly, we were able to show that activation is also a matter of fit. Different types of non-voters need different political education programmes as they lack different types of political knowledge. In conclusion, it is possible to learn democracy. However, it is a lifelong task that should begin in childhood and continue into old age. Since voter turnout is closely linked to political knowledge, programmes should be tailored to the needs of different social groups in order to engage non-voters in politics. • Education is emphasized as a factor explaining abstention. • Turnout in Western democracies decreased although educational levels have risen. • Prior work identifies three types of non-voters: disillusioned, unengaged, standby. • Political education is an explanatory factor for all types of passive citizens. • The level of ignorance differs across groups.

ABSTRACT This study reconceptualizes political education as a means for cultivating democratic values, emotional engagement, political literacy, critical thinking, and active citizenship. Using a qualitative design with 48 Israeli public-school teachers (24 interviews and four focus groups), it mapped pedagogical strategies for addressing socio-political issues in classrooms following the 7 October 2023, attack and the subsequent war. Based on the findings, we developed the REACT model, which includes five interrelated elements that can be integrated across subjects and curricula: (R) recognizing emotional responses, (E) enriching political knowledge, (A) analysing critically, (C) concluding and formulating positions, and (T) taking action through civic engagement. The model offers a systematic framework for teaching democratic and political literacy while fostering emotional awareness and respectful dialogue in classrooms marked by diversity of opinion and heightened tension. The study reveals that controversial issues emerged both spontaneously from students and intentionally through teacher initiatives, highlighting the dynamic interplay between emotional and cognitive dimensions of learning during crisis. While grounded in the Israeli context, the REACT model contributes to a theoretically grounded and practically applicable roadmap for educators worldwide seeking to strengthen civic resilience and democratic commitments amid polarization, misinformation, and social fragmentation.

ABSTRACT Drawing on assumptions about the link between international higher education and socio-political development, this paper examines the impact of studying in established democracies on Russian young people's understandings of democracy. The analysis is based on 55 in-depth interviews with Russian students and alumni of American and British universities, conducted in 2018–2019. The article argues that international educational mobility increases Russian young people's political knowledge, albeit to varying degrees. In addition, in some cases, studying abroad helps refine concepts of democracy or facilitates the development of a meaningful understanding of democracy. However, such positive effects of overseas studies are somewhat weakened by uneven political learning manifest in some students’ fragmented and impressionistic political knowledge, and scepticism towards democracy as a political system.

We study the effects of social media political advertising by randomizing subsets of 36,906 Facebook users and 25,925 Instagram users to have political ads removed from their news feeds for 6 weeks before the 2020 US presidential election. We show that most presidential ads were targeted towards parties' own supporters and that fundraising ads were the most common. On both Facebook and Instagram, we found no detectable effects of removing political ads on political knowledge, polarization, perceived legitimacy of the election, political participation (including campaign contributions), candidate favourability and turnout. This was true overall and for both Democrats and Republicans separately.

Abstract There is a strong consensus in the literature that political sophistication is associated with ‘correct voting’, i.e., the ability to identify the political party that is closest to one’s own political preferences (Lau & Redlawsk, 2006). Since the theory was first formulated two decades ago, however, patterns of news consumption have changed dramatically. Not only is there a massive transfer from print to online formats, but a growing an increasing part of the population has adopted a pattern of ‘news avoidance’. This increasingly prevalent phenomenon leads to a reconsideration of the traditional relation between political interest, political knowledge, news consumption, and the ability to cast an ideologically congruent vote. One of the key elements of news avoidance is the assessment that traditional news is no longer considered as relevant or salient by a substantial number of citizens. What is not yet clear is to what extent this attitude is related to electoral outcomes. Our analysis is based on the results of the BelREP panel survey that was conducted to coincide with the June 2024 elections in Belgium. More specifically we investigated to what extent news avoidance limits ideologically congruent voting, controlling for conventional indicators of political sophistication. The results indicate that news avoidance has a detrimental effect on congruent voting, especially among respondents with low levels of political knowledge.

Despite growing scientific interest in conspiracy theories, what has not been researched and theorized is their production as a collaborative social process. This article delineates this gap and proposes to address it by shifting focus from belief to doing conspiracy theory, to be analysed on five levels: (A) the socio-structural level, (B) conspiracy theory producing milieus, (C) conspiracy theory scenes, (D) conspiracy theory knowledge production in interactions, and (E) psychodynamics. This perspective has the potential to better our understanding of the current conjuncture of conspiracy theorising, and to prove insightful for understanding the production of contentious political knowledge in general.

Purpose Fact-checks have emerged as tools to correct misinformation, with mainly experimental research demonstrating their positive effects. Additionally, the main focus of fact-check studies lies on specific knowledge correction, while fact-checkers’ democratic goals go beyond that. This study accommodates these methodological and conceptual limitations by investigating whether fact-checks can contribute to political knowledge (current affairs knowledge and contested issue knowledge). Design/methodology/approach The study relies on a three-wave panel (N = 2.214). Respondents ranged between 16 and 30 years old and data were gathered during the Belgian elections. Findings The results show that both exposure to and subsequent consumption of fact-checks are positively related to current affairs knowledge and contested issue knowledge on the between-person level. This means that people who generally see and read with fact-checks more often tend to have higher knowledge overall. On the within-person level, relationships between exposure and reading and knowledge effects were less straightforward. The irregular relationships suggest that short-term changes in fact-check exposure and reading do not consistently translate into knowledge gains. These results suggest that the relationship between exposure and reading of fact-checks and knowledge differs more between individuals over time than it does within one individual. Originality/value This study is one of the first to investigate fact-check exposure effects over a longer period of time, relying on panel data. Additionally, by going beyond specific fact-check knowledge and relying instead on more general measures of political knowledge, this study contributes to the current fact-checking literature by bridging the desired goals of fact-check organizations and potential knowledge outcomes. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-10-2025-0841

This national online survey study (N = 571) examines the relations between political participation and viewing either political satire or political comedy. We theorise the O-S-R-O-R framework in which individual-level differences (news use, partisanship) are associated with late-night viewing (political satire, political comedy), and via mediators – political talk, social media expression, political knowledge and political efficacy – to predict participation. Findings suggest that news use patterns and partisanship predict late-night viewing, and those who watch political satire are more likely to participate in politics than those who watch political comedy. Here, late-night shows, aired during and right after the 2016 U.S. presidential election when the contemporary form of late-night programming had its peak and started to adopt an explicit partisan tone, are understood in their predictive roles in fostering political outcomes. This study provides historical context that future research can apply to contemporary cases like Gutfeld!, especially amid major changes, such as upcoming Colbert’s cancellation.

This paper questions the post-political hypothesis that top-down mobilization of expert knowledge leads to depoliticization. For two case studies of environmental conflicts in Brussels, it analyzes how knowledge is also mobilized from below and emphasizes that neither politicization nor depoliticization is guaranteed. Developing an analytical framework to study knowledge politics, our analysis illuminates how both top-down and bottom-up politics of knowledge production, brokerage and dissemination politicize and depoliticize urban environmental issues in Brussels. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the role of knowledge in environmental politics and shows that knowledge and power are related in intricate ways.

Greater political knowledge is associated with higher levels of political capital. Often attributed to socialized gender norms, men have been found to possess a political knowledge advantage over women. Extending research on this topic, the present study explores how the cognitive process of elaboration relates to continued gender disparities in political knowledge, interest, and information efficacy. Relying on data gathered during a 2020 and a 2024 presidential debate, this essay proposes the term gendered political elaboration to denote the mechanism through which the gender knowledge gap may subsequently contribute to inequitable learning outcomes from the consumption of political debate messages. Results indicate that women tended to possess lower political knowledge, interest, and information efficacy, factors in this study which mediated levels of elaboration. Accordingly, identifying as a woman negatively influenced one’s elaboration and was associated with disparate learning outcomes along gender lines. In sum, interventions related to the inequitable social cultivation of political aptitude and interest are likely warranted as is further research into how message priming and framing may help to mitigate gendered political elaboration and produce more equitable conditions for democratic learning.

Online venues, especially social media platforms, have become more important in the modern digital age for political socialization, especially among young people. With an eye on urban government, this study investigates the effects of political socialization on university students offline political engagement and perceptions of their own political efficacy through social media. In this study, 375 undergraduate and graduate students had their survey data analyzed using a quantitative research approach. This study looks at the connection between being politically active online, being politically conscious, and actually getting involved in politics. The results shows that college students rely heavily on social media to be informed about politics and have a strong sense of political agency. An individual\'s belief in their own political impact and their engagement in offline political processes as they pertain to city administration are both positively correlated with their degree of political engagement on the internet. It appears that social media plays a vital role in the modern process of political socialization, since there is a strong relationship between political knowledge, online involvement, and offline activity. Digital platforms are changing the way young people get involved in politics, and this study highlights the social significance of these platforms and their potential to improve participatory city planning.

Grassroots political movements function as essential elements which enhance democratic systems through their ability to engage citizens and shape municipal administration. The study investigates how grassroots movements operate at the local level to impact decision-making procedures which affect their community. Community organizations use their programs to engage citizens who then learn about local problems while they work to keep government entities responsible. Grassroots movements usually form through community-based organizations which work to solve problems related to public services and environmental protection and social justice and transparent governance. The movements use collective action and public participation and community leadership as their main methods to achieve social transformation. The organizations function as intermediaries who connect citizens with municipal governments while they make sure that disadvantaged communities can express their opinions. The research demonstrates that grassroots movements create substantial changes in local government operations through their ability to raise political knowledge among citizens and drive community engagement and their commitment to transparent government practices. The organization uses community resources to create better policies through its process of identifying essential local requirements and main community priorities. The organization faces obstacles because it operates with restricted resources and it lacks institutional backing and its activities encounter political opposition. The paper concludes that grassroots political movements serve as fundamental elements which support democratic governance through their operation at local government levels. The movements accomplish their goals by empowering citizens to take part in decision-making processes which boosts government transparency and responsiveness and citizen eligibility for participation. The implementation of better support systems for these initiatives will result in improved performance of local governance operations which will help build trustworthy systems

Abstract Social media have substantially changed the opportunities for political engagement, both in how citizens become informed and learn about politics, as well as in their political participation. On the one hand, citizens can encounter a large diversity of political content on these platforms, both in terms of format and topic. On the other hand, social media are increasingly used by citizens to express their views and mobilize others in highly personalized ways. While social media seem to hold unique opportunities for political learning and participation, it remains unclear how these processes might be linked to each other. Therefore, following communication mediation theory, we explore whether and how political knowledge about current affairs might mediate the association between exposure to political content on social media and participation on these same platforms. Data from a cross-sectional study in Flanders, Belgium (n = 2,520), reveal a complex participatory cycle. While citizens do seem to learn from social media political content, those who are more knowledgeable engage less in social media political participation. While unexpected, these findings highlight the importance of considering the unique social media affordances when researching political socialization and participation.

The authors evaluate a novel accountability-based approach to civic education, which enables young people to hold local authorities to account for the quality of public services. They theorize that engaging young people in making demands of local authorities empowers them as active citizens while enhancing their interest in politics. In Bangladesh, young people who volunteered to participate in the study were randomly assigned to join a program that informed them of their rights to education and healthcare and enabled them to make demands of their service providers. Relative to a comparison group that only received information, participation in holding service providers accountable enhanced their self-efficacy and political efficacy, increased knowledge of politics and the extent to which they discussed politics and followed the news. These effects were similar across three separate cohorts of participants, underscoring their robustness. The findings show how active citizens can be fostered even in non-democratic, low-resource settings.

Abstract Educational attainment is related to more political trust. In this study, we adopt a global perspective, arguing that this ‘education effect’ is conditional on the development of ‘schooled societies’. In such societies, schooling as a central institution installs educational attainment as a main source of social status, granting the higher educated a dominant position in the political field. Consequently, higher educated citizens have high levels of political trust, while the less educated are distrusting. In less schooled societies, however, the ‘education effect’ is more ambiguous, as the social status of the higher educated is less guaranteed and depends on their relationship to the state. Consequently, there may be a large gap in political trust between those who are publicly employed and those who are not. We, therefore, examined the relationship among educational attainment, a schooled society, sector of employment, and political trust. We combined the Schooled Society Index with data from the World Values Survey and European Values Study. Multilevel analyses across 84 countries ( N individual = 102,102) revealed that the positive relationship between educational attainment and political trust was conditional on the development of ‘schooled’ society. Furthermore, in less strongly schooled societies, there was an important gap in political trust among the higher educated, depending on whether or not they were publicly employed. Such patterns cannot be explained by educational differences in political knowledge or cognitive sophistication. In contrast, our results imply that the ‘educational effect’ on political trust is strongly dependent on the social status of education-based groups.

Abstract Web‐based surveys have gained popularity due to their cost‐effectiveness and changing participation habits, a trend accelerated by the COVID‐19 pandemic. This raises questions about the continued value of paper‐based surveys in mixed‐mode studies like the Swiss Election Study (Selects), which uses a push‐to‐web design, offering a paper questionnaire only after several reminders. It is conventionally thought that those opting for paper surveys are older and politically less engaged. Using data from the 2019 and 2023 Selects post‐election surveys, we examine mode selection by sociodemographic and political profile, comparing web and paper samples. Our findings suggest that age‐related biases have decreased in 2023, but that citizens living in a one‐person‐household and those with less political knowledge are more likely to choose the paper questionnaire than their counterparts. Thus, the added value of paper surveys in correcting selection biases remains, but especially age‐related effects are likely to become less relevant over the next years.

ABSTRACT The study examined news platform repertoires among South Korean young adults and their effects on political competence. Four distinct repertoires were identified: aggregator & video, all but print & radio, aggregator & social media, and aggregator-only. The findings indicate that using a wider variety of platforms does not necessarily lead to greater competence. Participants who relied on the broadest range of platforms (i.e. all but print & radio) demonstrated lower objective political knowledge (factual understanding). However, this group reported higher levels of subjective knowledge (perceived understanding) and political participation than those in other repertoires, despite their lower objective knowledge. The results suggest that strategically combining a few platforms is more effective for acquiring objective political knowledge than simply consuming news from all available sources. In particular, the combined use of aggregators and video (i.e. aggregator & video) enhanced both objective and subjective political knowledge. Interestingly, individuals who relied on the repertoire with the lowest level of variety (i.e. aggregator-only) exhibited relatively high objective political knowledge yet perceived themselves as less knowledgeable and were less politically engaged. The implications of these findings are discussed.

This study examines public perceptions of state level political corruption in the United States using original data from two national public opinion surveys conducted in 2014 and 2022. Our analyses reveal several important insights about the underpinnings of state corruption perceptions. First, we find that perceptions of state corruption are modestly related to the actual state corruption context—people are able to connect their perceptions to reality. Second, consistent with previous research on partisanship, partisan biases play a substantial role in shaping perceptions of state level corruption, with people being much more likely to perceive corruption when the incumbent governor in their state is an out-partisan. Finally, the relationship between corruption perceptions and the state corruption context is not significantly moderated by political knowledge.

Abstract For many years, political scientists have debated over voter competence in direct democracy. At the core of the discussion is whether this central institution enlightens citizens about political facts. However, scholars have primarily examined if direct democracy fosters general political knowledge even though referendums and ballot initiatives are policy-specific in nature, as citizens vote on particular political proposals. By utilising a range of unique panel survey data collected around four Danish European Union referendums, I show that voters’ knowledge of policy-specific information markedly increased during the campaigns. I also combine the survey data with an original media content analysis and find that the learning of issue-specific facts is more related to the opportunities provided by the media information environment than to individual ability or motivation. These results suggest that a broad group of voters acquire policy-specific facts that help them make informed choices when they are granted full control of political decision-making.

Quentin Delaroche is a French-born filmmaker who has been making documentaries in Brazil since 2017. Interested in everyday political issues, his practice is informed by themes such as coronelismo, the 2018 truckers' strikes, and people's struggles for life: from building their own homes and winning elections to changing the country, becoming digital influencers on the Kwai platform, and accessing safe abortion. Gifted with a radical observational practice, Quentin Delaroche and his partners position themselves as listeners of everyday life, placing them within Brazilian political situations in the face of the construction of local political knowledge. In this dialogue—more than a mere interview—the proposal is to listen to Quentin and his work; thus, the discourse is interwoven with thoughts, images, and film excerpts that weave the landscapes in which both the listening and this text were produced.