What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters

A demographic spreadsheet of knowledge about electoral and legislative politics relating to the US government. Drawing on both new and existing survey data, finds that many Americans know a lot and many know nothing, and that the proportion has not changed over the past half century. They also find that whites, men, the older, and the wealthier are more informed, more likely to participate in politics, more able to discern their interests, and more savvy in pursuing them, than blacks, women, young adults, and the financially less-well-off. Also suggests approaches to redistributing the knowledge. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Scott Keeter is professor and chair of the department of political science and public administration at Virginia Commonwealth University.