Political Knowledge and Education: Alternative Explanations?

• In Event: Poster Session: Public Opinion & Ideas, Knowledge and Politics
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Public Opinion

Abstract

Political knowledge is an important variable in explaining public opinion and voting behavior. The more knowledgeable have more highly organized, stable attitudes, and are more likely to participate in politics. Their attitudes and votes tend to be more tightly connected to their values and interests. But what makes people more or less knowledgeable?
This study gives special attention to the effect of education. Despite extant research that indicates citizens of today are more politically knowledgeable, not many studies have investigated the true relationship between education, which is the common ‘pillar’ indicator of the knowledge society, and political knowledge. Are people with higher education attainment more politically knowledgeable, other things being equal?
I argue here that they are not—that, on the contrary, other variables like occupation and political interest have greater effects. The general knowledge learned from formal schooling may but need not include much political knowledge. Even the poorly educated, on the other hand, can be politically knowledgeable. Based on data from the American National Election Studies 2016 Time Series Study conducted during the two months preceding and the two months following the 2016 presidential election, results indicate a negligible effect of education. Occupation and political interest have stronger effects on political knowledge. The results help adjudicate the conflicting findings on political knowledge and education in the past.

Author

• Yul Min Park, University of Texas at Austin