-
The Modest Researcher
October 4, 2012 | 1 comment
-
TARP’s Goodfellas
August 7, 2012 | 13 comments
-
Government in Full Gallop
November 12, 2011 | 0 comments
-
Living in the Roe v. Wade World
October 27, 2011 | 193 comments
-
America’s Fannie Pack
September 2, 2011 | 30 comments
The Nation's Pulse
Civically Illiterate
America’s voters: dumb, irrational, and out-of-touch.
How can you vote responsibly if you don’t know the meaning of “free enterprise”?
That is the question posed in “Our Fading Heritage,” the survey on civic literacy released by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The report found that only 54% of college graduates can correctly identify a free enterprise system as one in which individual citizens create, exchange, and control goods and services.
Of course, this statistic reflects the civic understanding of college graduates. Those without a college degree fare even worse.
Overall, Americans fail the test, which featured questions on U.S. history and economics written at a high school level, with many of the questions taken from a Department of Education test designed for 12th graders. The average score was 49%, and people from all walks of life — rich, poor, conservative, liberal, religious, secular, etc. — earned similarly terrible scores.
Specifically, only 27% of citizens know that the Bill of Rights expressly forbids establishing an official religion for the United States. Barely half of Americans know that the power to declare war belongs to Congress and not the president. Fewer than half can name all three branches of the government.
When I was a high school junior, my U.S. history teacher tried to trap me on that last one. First he asked if anyone could name the Three Stooges. I shot back with Larry, Moe, and Curly. He then challenged me to name the three branches of government, expecting to show that I was better versed in dumb TV than in important matters.
Some of my classmates looked terrified for my sake, but I did know the answer, and I foiled him. I felt like I’d dodged a bullet, thinking that if I’d muffed the answer I’d be exposed as an ignoramus. I didn’t realize that I would have had a little over half of my fellow Americans — most of whom had long since graduated from high school — to keep me company.
It doesn’t take a scientific survey to show that the unwashed masses are relatively uneducated. Unfortunately, though, the ISI study also casts doubt on two groups that should be held to a higher standard: college graduates and elected officials.
Previous ISI studies focused on U.S. colleges, showing that most schools, including elite ones, are utterly failing to educate their students. This year’s study allows a comparison between college graduates and those without higher education, and the results are ugly: college grads earned a failing grade only 13 percentage points higher than those with only high school diplomas. Controlling for innate differences between the two groups (naturally engaged students are more likely to succeed at higher levels, after all), the difference shrinks even further, suggesting that U.S. colleges add very little to their charges’ education.
Most damning of all, perhaps, is that self-identified elected officials score lower on average than the general public. So not only are our politicians illiterate in matters of political history and economics, they are less knowledgeable than the already lamentably ill-informed average citizen. Fifty-four percent do not know that the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. They tested worse than everyone else in the subjects of First Amendment freedoms, international trade, abortion, and many more. “The blind leading the blind” has never seemed more appropriate.
Of course, Americans are not only ignorant of basic civic matters, they are also unaware of current events. A recent Zogby poll (pdf) presented findings that seemed to discredit Obama supporters’ knowledge of the candidates. While it is still a matter of debate whether the poll unfairly cast Obama’s fans in a bad light, there is no doubt it impugned citizens in general. Among other revealing numbers, 57% of Americans thought that the Republicans controlled Congress. Since only two parties realistically could possibly have control over Congress, the respondents had a 50% shot at the right answer if they simply guessed — but obviously they were biased against the truth.
Irrational biases such as this are not as rare as we might hope. In his book The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies, the George Mason economist Bryan Caplan looks into the numbers and finds that voters are not symetrically ignorant. In his words, the “errors don’t cancel out,” meaning that there is a statistically significant amount of ignorant voters who favor bad policies. He finds anti-market, anti-foreigner, and pessimistic biases, among others, to be inexplicably persistent.
Although Caplan can’t explain why we vote so irrationally, his finding do show how we end up with such bad politicians.
What we are left with, then, is a citizenry woefully ignorant of its civic institutions, morbidly unaware of the surrounding world, and irrationally misguided in the voting booth. How is democracy to succeed?
(DISCLOSURE: Joseph Lawler’s fellowship is through the Collegiate Network, a subsidiary of ISI)
About the Author
Joseph Lawler, former managing editor of The American Spectator, is editor of Real Clear Policy. Follow him on twitter: @josephlawler.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (52) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Joseph Lawler
More Articles From The Nation's Pulse
http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/24/civically-illiterate
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- Consternated Conferences
- Eugenic Abortion 2.0
- A President Loses His Power
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
H/T to National Review Online
ADVERTISEMENT
in Socal| 11.24.08 @ 6:44AM
So then, what is the best way to educate our fellow citizens at the grass roots level when they are too busy working to go to school or school is too expensive?
frost| 11.24.08 @ 7:04AM
The last Global Geographic Literacy Survey, assessing the geographic knowledge of 18-24-year-olds -- only 17 percent of young Americans could locate Afghanistan on a map; 29 percent could not correctly identify the Pacific Ocean; and 11 percent were unable to find the continental United States. Think that's bad? Well, not too long ago, a Gallop Poll of 700 college seniors found that 23% thought the statement "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" was part of the United States Constitution! Surprised. Not really...
Rocco| 11.24.08 @ 7:31AM
I am from a generation which studied "Civics" in high school, history before it was relabled as "social studies," and was taught everything one needed to know to be a basically competent citizen, as it was done in previous generations. Over 40 years of a declining quality of a public education delivered by harried or incompetent teachers created by a Mickey Mouse educational establishment and protected by a union, overseen by an evergrowing educational bureaucracy, has taken its toll. As I once told my now-adult sons, pursue knowledge and learn to read and write well and clearly as we are well on our way to a new Dark Age; as in the previous one between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance, those who were literate had options and a power the illiterate never obtained.
Kitty| 11.24.08 @ 7:36AM
"most schools, including elite ones, are utterly failing to educate their students"
I thought that was the object of our education system. Their goal is indoctrination.
...
Jason | 11.24.08 @ 7:58AM
"The voters are not symetrically ignorant." I think we can blame that on a combination of public school incompetence and media bias. A very bad combination.
http://rightklik.blogspot.com/
Mike| 11.24.08 @ 8:26AM
A nice portrait of the base of the Republican Party, the people so easily manipulated by Karl Rove. You know the ones who thought Sarah Palin was correct when she identified Africa as a country instead of a continent. The ones who wore T-shirts with F**** the Feds, vote for Ted. The ones who think Joe the Plumber had an opinion worth listening to and still think George Bush is doing a good job even though James Baker, on Meet the Press, all but begged him to get off his lazy arse and do something about our current financial crisis.
Nelson| 11.24.08 @ 8:27AM
It gets worse, as far as I am concerned. Question #30 on the test forces the test-taker to yield to Keynesian economics if he wants to get it right. What policy would the government be most likely to take to stimulate the economy? They say lower taxes and raise spending. I considered that carefully and rejected it. The correct answer, in my view, is lower taxes and lower spending. I suppose I am a limited government dinosaur.
George Thompson| 11.24.08 @ 8:55AM
In my humble opinion, the correct answers to the questions about the Three Stooges and the three branches of government is, and certainly will remain, the same. And I certainly apologize in advance to the surviving families of Moses Horwitz (Moe Howard), Louis Fienberg (Larry Fine), Jerome Lester Horwitz (Curly Howard), Samuel Horwitz (Shemp Howard), Joe Besser and Joseph Wardell (Curly Joe DeRita).
Larry, Moe and Curly’s classic “Swinging the Alphabet” from their 1938 film for Columbia Pictures, “Violent is the Word for Curly” in which “The Stooges pose(d) as professors at Mildew College” clearly demonstrated that these comic geniuses understood education infinitely better than anyone currently or soon to be working in The White House, The U.S. Capitol or One First Street Northeast in Washington, D.C. - none of whom can have the word genius associated with their names except in their personal hype.
In preparing this comment I researched the following web sites:
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Supreme_Court_building
2) http://www.threestooges.com/
Marc| 11.24.08 @ 10:08AM
I agree with Nelson. If you factor my answer as correct, I got 30 out of 33, or 91%.
scott horn| 11.24.08 @ 10:16AM
IBM just decided to have a computer lab with 6000 employees put in China. Why? Same reason we've heard for years from Bill Gates, Steve Jobs: they're better qualified. Apparently they have their own schools, which graduate 800,00 computer science majors per year. I'll bet we graduate maybe 50,00 per year, and we all know what nationalities they most likely are. Not to mention, Chinese are obviously more stable, family oriented, loyal, grateful, and hard working than your average American. If the world needs any Psychology majors, please, take a few million of ours. Just go to the nearest Starbucks.
In about a decade, the story won't be about business leaving here, cause it won't start up here to begin with.
james| 11.24.08 @ 10:19AM
Leave it to "Mike," a stupid liberal, to think that this was a survey of republicans. This was a survey of Americans, most of whom don't consider themselves anything. Do you really think that liberal college kids know more about the Constitution than non-liberals? I've got three kids in Ivy League schools. Wake up Mike. You're clueless.
Chaz| 11.24.08 @ 10:39AM
"Mike | 11.24.08 @ 7:26AM
A nice portrait of the base of the Republican Party, the people so easily manipulated by Karl Rove. You know the ones who thought Sarah Palin was correct when she identified Africa as a country instead of a continent. The ones who wore T-shirts with F**** the Feds, vote for Ted. The ones who think Joe the Plumber had an opinion worth listening to and still think George Bush is doing a good job even though James Baker, on Meet the Press, all but begged him to get off his lazy arse and do something about our current financial crisis. "
This is from a supporter of the President-elect who thinks there are 57 States in the Union and a VP who has spent so many years as a Senator who does not know the Vice President is the President of the Senate.
By the way, the myth of Palin stating Africa was a country and not a continent was debunked.
in SoCal| 11.24.08 @ 10:59AM
So then, what is the best way to educate our fellow citizens at the grass roots level when they are too busy working to go to school or school is too expensive?
Steve Baarda| 11.24.08 @ 11:10AM
I shake my head at Americans...the greatest country on earth...and most of you have no clue...I have a Masters degree...which I got at an American university [Calvin Theological Seminary]...but I am a Canadian...and I took the test online and got 32 out of 33...the only one I missed was the question about a debate Lincon had...pretty good result if I do say so...but what is wrong with the rest of the people in your country...I think "Jaywalking" and making fun of ignorant Americans is all too easy. It is no wonder the rest of the world sees you as a bunch of uncultured boors...sighs...and this from the greatest system of government this world has known.
Obama Rules| 11.24.08 @ 11:12AM
Chaz writes, "This is from a supporter of the President-elect who thinks there are 57 States in the Union and a VP who has spent so many years as a Senator who does not know the Vice President is the President of the Senate."
Where did you pull this from?
Peter McGrath| 11.24.08 @ 11:40AM
We could all benefit, after reading Lawler's depressing column, from knowing that 47 million Americans didn't drink the Kool Aid and weren't buying what Obama was selling: a larger, more intrusive, federal government, the doling out of increasing "benefits," and regulations which will continue to drive American businesses overseas. The committed left comprise perhaps one-half of Obama's 52 million votes with the balance being cast by the barely literate voting for the "Next Big Thing." Obama won't be able to help himself. He will address an economic crisis (created by federal meddling in the mortgage and real estate markets) by increasing government involvement in other markets (healthcare, the auto industry, you name it). As a result, in 4 (perhaps 2) years, with America's economy and foreign policy in shambles, some tens of millions of voters will have learned a valuable lesson. The rest of us will nobly resist the urge to say, "I told you so."
Jeremiah| 11.24.08 @ 12:54PM
re: "dumb, irrational, and out of touch"
You'll forgive us on the left who cover our mouths and smile when tuning into a conservative site where low-information voters are descried.
Is this the party of Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, and Michelle Bachmann?
Or is this the party of Milton Friedman, William F Buckley, George Will, and Ronald Reagan?
Because you've got to choose, folks.
You can't howl and throw things every time someone mentions the NY Times and be the party of ideas. David Brooks is a better friend to you than you know.
If you want young, intellectual people who tend conservative to join you, expel the anti-intellectual mob in your midst. Embrace science, journalism, and education. Leave off the excessive, hateful, and moronic rhetoric (Obama "pals around with terrorists"). You'll find there are many young people ready and eager to join your ranks. (And yes, even those who the universities have tried but failed to corrupt.)
By the way, about so-called "liberal" colleges:
The universities are more centrist now in many ways than they were in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Nevertheless, during the entire post-68 period, universities have generally been turning out students who, despite what opinions they express as students, are roughly divided 50-50 on their overall political worldview (i.e. "conservative" and "liberal"). If they do not vote for Republicans as often as you would like, you might ask yourself if advocating for clear-cut logging because "trees cause pollution" and other retarded theories that get bandied around in your ranks might have something to do with it.
Again, if you talk reasonably and cultivate civil, learned discourse among yourselves, young college educated people will join you and follow your good example.
JC Michelson| 11.24.08 @ 12:55PM
The indictment should be of our news media who seek to entertain rather than educate. People with the class of "Obama Rules" are the result.
ruth| 11.24.08 @ 2:19PM
We already have a democrat party--we don't need another one; but thanks for your advice, liberals. We are going to watch you govern over the next four years--let's see how you do. I have to laugh at your CHANGE mantra, though, Obama's cabinet is a bunch of Clinton retreads. What a joke you are, you even lied about that.
chaz| 11.24.08 @ 2:35PM
Obama Rules
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws
Watch it for yourself.
chaz| 11.24.08 @ 2:37PM
Obama Rules
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/03/biden-gaffe-vp-is-always-president-of-the-senate/
Here is your VP Elect gaff. Read it for yourself.
Jeremiah| 11.24.08 @ 5:16PM
Whenever a party loses there is a natural tendency to blame others.
In 2000, Democrats complained that the election had been "stolen" and made noises about unfair treatment in the press. Same in 04.
This year, we find the Republicans will to blame every American cultural institution for its failures.
Republicans have not lost because they presented unappealing ideas and proposals, or because what ideas they had were not articulated well.
Oh, no. They lost because Katie Couric was mean. They lost because of liberal anthropology professors. They lost because of Hollywood. Brad Pitt defeated them.
This is nonsense. You people shouldn't fall for it.
The Democrats won in part because we stopped whining about having elections stolen from us in Ohio and Florida and decided to compete all over the country. This was wise and eminently American. The pay off is clear.
ruth| 11.24.08 @ 5:41PM
Yes, the payoff is clear. You whined about change for two years and look what you got: Clinton. Liberal, thy name is sucker.
Paul Nelson| 11.24.08 @ 5:46PM
for Nelson
Question 30 of the quiz asks what is the MOST LIKELY course of action of a government trying to stimulate the economy, not the course of action that would be most effective in the longer term
Jeremiah| 11.24.08 @ 5:52PM
re: "Look what you got. Clinton."
Ruth --
Maybe you ought to try reading one of those newspapers you people are always complaining about.
You'll find that we got Obama as president. He's the Decider now, darling.
Yes, he took a rival, Hillary Clinton, into his cabinet (one who, by the way, is getting high marks from many Republicans when it comes to foreign policy).
Obama's as shrewd a man as has held that office in quite a while. Choosing Clinton for State was politically smart and from the point of view of good governance pragmatic and sound.
Sorry, Ruth.
ruth| 11.24.08 @ 6:01PM
But I thought you Obamatons hated Clinton. Now you love her? Wow you sure backpedal fast. She's not the only Clintonite in his cabinet either, don't lie. His administration is pock-marked by Clinton's old worn-out cronies. I just think it's funny that you arrogant libtards got suckered. Change we can believe in. Right.
Andrew| 11.24.08 @ 6:11PM
I am a South African and I got 30/33 - damn, now I will never qualify for a green card...
Jeremiah| 11.24.08 @ 7:37PM
RE: "But I thought you Obamatons hated Clinton"
Ruth --
Maybe if you didn't simplify all incoming information, stereotype all people different from yourself, think in black and white categories, live by shallow reductivism, and speak in worn out cliches, you wouldn't be so surprised when Democrats learn whom Obama appointed as Secretary of State.
"Obamatons" is now officially a dead joke by the way. As a matter of fact, as the Representative of the New Decider, I hearby ban all further usage of that term -- not because it slights 68 million American citizens, but because it shows an unwillingness to use one's brain if only even for a second to think of a fresh insult. If you have no ideas to share, at least be witty.
ruth| 11.24.08 @ 8:38PM
Oh, come on now, Jeremiah, where is that great sense of humor you liberals are famous for? We get to sit back with a box of popcorn and watch you obamaton clowns perform for the next four years. Are you having fun yet?
Steve Baarda| 11.24.08 @ 9:50PM
Liberals read AmSpec because they hunger to read something intelligent for a change, something that gets beyond slogans that can be shouted at a protest march.
Thomas| 11.24.08 @ 9:56PM
My thanks to all of the posters that took the time to prove the point of the article. This isn't about bragging rights. This is about what it is going to cost this country. Stay tuned for the next four years. You'll long for the Tree Stooges.
ruth| 11.24.08 @ 10:08PM
Who are the Tree Stooges? The liberal stooges are on display for all to see, and for them it is all about bragging rights. Haven't you been reading blogs since the election?
Jeremiah| 11.24.08 @ 11:53PM
Thomas --
I didn't intend to brag, really. I just wish Ruth could come up with something better than "Obamatons," which has gotten boring.
As for bragging, now that I think of it -- but no. That for another day.
You all have a good Thanksgiving.
Ralph Woods| 11.25.08 @ 6:13AM
Took the test and scored 31 out of 33. graduated High School 1963 College 1967. I feel fortunate I missed most of the dumbing down years of the American education system. These days I help myself retain a modicum of knowledge by avoiding network news broadcasts or listening to the talking head pundits that populate TV.
JamesJ| 11.25.08 @ 9:24AM
This is the result of 40 years of liberal dominated dumb-them-down, gubbermint is the answer public skools
chiefpayne| 11.25.08 @ 10:52AM
When this country was first started, only people of property (who had wealth) could vote. The REASON for this was because they were the educated people and so could govern knowledgably. Now, we have the lowest common denominator not only voting but RUNNING for our highest offices!
I would have NO problem forcing people to take a small, basic test concerning their government PRIOR to being allowed to vote. That way, at least those with some knowledge about what is at stake would be allowed to vote!!!
Sam| 11.25.08 @ 11:13AM
chiefpayne --
You are correct that the propertied class "when this country was first started" denied the vote to the unpropertied and offered education as a reason for this denial.
History suggests the denial comes first and is only followed by the explanation, and there is considerable self-interest at stake when one class denies a vote to another class. If I deprive you of your vote, I increase the power of my vote. If one social class deprives another of its vote, it ensures that more voters will vote according to interests that coincides with its own.
I'm ambivalent about poll tests (which is what you are suggesting). They have an ugly history in this country. As you probably know, they were used to justify denying the franchise to millions of people for about 100 years.
How about this.
Why not work to improve public education? Conservatives are actually still "the party of ideas" when it comes to public education, although their instinct to defund schools undercuts their own ambitions with respect to education.
I say increase accountability and lessen the power of teachers' unions (as conservatives argue) AND throw all kinds of money at the problem (which actually does work every time its tried).
Don't rest until this country as THE BEST public education system in the world. Our schools should be to the rest of the civilized world's schools what our nuclear arsenal is to the rest of the world's.
Crusader| 11.25.08 @ 2:46PM
If you do not pay FICA or if you receive welfare, you should not be able to vote. Period.
Christina| 11.25.08 @ 3:34PM
I did fairly well, although I sat here and recited most of the Gettysburg Address and then answered the Declaration...duh.
"The correct answer, in my view, is lower taxes and lower spending. I suppose I am a limited government dinosaur. "
I agree with you that that's the path the government should take, but it asked which one a government was most likely to take. For that the answer is "lower takes and raise spending".
Jeremiah| 11.25.08 @ 3:45PM
Crusader --
Then how are you different than any other tyrant that denies people the vote?
Jeremiah| 11.25.08 @ 8:17PM
Christina --
The point of recession spending is not some bleeding heart need to save poor people.
Markets boom and bust. Unfortunately, human beings are living beings, not money. They can't just be shelved until things improve.
Governments spend vigorously during recessions to get the circulation going again. When government spends, the money moves quickly into the economy. It creates jobs and gives consumers money to walk around with. That's good for you no matter what you do or where you work. (Unless you're a prison guard.)
ruth| 11.25.08 @ 8:51PM
I believe using ACORN to win elections fraudulently is a form of tyranny; it's just sneakier than using brute force. Either way, the voice of the people is not being heard.
Jeremiah| 11.25.08 @ 10:19PM
Ruth --
Maybe you could offer some factual support for your assertion or explain your reasoning, or maybe just answer this question:
How is it that ACORN deprives anyone their franchise?
I'd be curious to know. What information do you have on ACORN? It sounds like you don't have the least idea what you're talking about (a.k.a Hannity fan).
Augustine| 11.25.08 @ 10:51PM
Dumbing down? Such is the Brave New World. Indeed, friends, the Brave New World is upon us. Google for my amazon lists:
"Resist the Brave New World"
&
"Mustapha Mond Is Now President. Resist."
ruth| 11.26.08 @ 2:33AM
Jeremiah, I thought an intellectual liberal like yourself could do better than hurl the dreaded 'Hannity' epithet. That's just so easy, so predictable--so low cognition of you. Think, now--if one person (living or dead) signs up to vote multiple times , if non-existent addresses are used or Obama campaign workers are voting in states where they don't live, many voters are dis-enfranchised-not just me. I'm sure you would feel the same way if ACORN's deceitful practices were used against your party. You might win by using dishonest means but that doesn't make it right.
have a brain| 2.12.09 @ 10:30PM
The reason Obongo was was two-fold. He promised money to the rich and to those poor and on welfare, which he delivered. And because the illiterate blacks were allowed to vote, ACORN and voter froad.