Lupia, Arthur (2006): How Elitism Undermines the Study of Voter Competence. Forthcoming in: Critical Review , Vol. 18,
Download (63kB) | Preview
A form of elitism undermines much writing on voter competence. The elitist move occurs when an author uses a self-serving worldview as the basis for evaluating voters. Such elitism is apparent in widely cited measures of “political knowledge” and in common claims about what voters should know. The elitist move typically limits the credibility and practical relevance of the analysis by leading writers to draw unreliable conclusions about voter competence. I propose a more constructive way of thinking about what voters know. Its chief virtue is its consistency with basic facts about the relationship between information and choice.
|Item Type:||MPRA Paper|
|Original Title:||How Elitism Undermines the Study of Voter Competence|
|Keywords:||information; search; competence; political knowledge; public policy|
|Subjects:||H - Public Economics > H0 - General > H00 - General
Y - Miscellaneous Categories > Y8 - Related Disciplines > Y80 - Related Disciplines
D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
|Depositing User:||Arthur Lupia|
|Date Deposited:||09. Oct 2006|
|Last Modified:||11. Feb 2013 18:33|
Bennett, Stephen E. “Know-Nothings Revisited: The Meaning of Political Ignorance Today.” Social Science Quarterly 69: 476-92. Campbell, Angus, Philip Converse, Donald Stokes, and Warren Miller. 1960. The American Voter. New York: John Wiley. Converse, Philip E.  2006. “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics.” Critical Review 18(1-2): 1-**. Converse, Philip E. 1975. "Public Opinion and Voting Behavior." In Handbook of Political Science," ed. Fred I. Greenstein and Nelson W. Polsby. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. Delli Carpini, Michael X., and Scott Keeter. 1996. What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters. New Haven: Yale University Press. Gould, Stephen J. 1996. The Mismeasure of Man, rev. ed. New York: W.W. Norton. Herbert, Bob. 2004. “Voting Without the Facts.” The New York Times, November 8: A23. Kuklinski, James H., and Paul J. Quirk. 2001. “Conceptual Foundations of Citizen Competence.” Political Behavior 23: 285-311. Lodge, Milton, and Charles Taber. 2000. “Three Steps Toward a Theory of Motivated Political Reasoning.” In Lupia et al. 2000. Lupia, Arthur. 2005a. “Necessary Conditions for Increasing Civic Competence: A Scientific Perspective.” Book chapter presented at World Bank workshop on “Politics and Service Delivery: When Do Governments Fail Voters?” and at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington D.C. Lupia, Arthur. 2005b. “Questioning Our Competence: Improving the Relevance of Common Political Knowledge Measures.” Book chapter presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, and the annual meeting of the International Society for Political Psychology. Lupia, Arthur, and Mathew D. McCubbins. 1998. The Democratic Dilemma: Can Citizens Learn What They Need to Know? New York: Cambridge University Press. Lupia, Arthur, Mathew D. McCubbins, and Samuel L. Popkin, eds. 2000. Elements of Reason: Cognition, Choice and the Bounds of Rationality. New York: Cambridge University Press. Newell, Allen. 1990. Unified Theories of Cognition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Popkin, Samuel L. 1991. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Somin, Ilya. 1998. “Voter Ignorance and the Democratic Ideal.” Critical Review 12: 413-58. Somin, Ilya. 2004. “When Ignorance Isn’t Bliss: How Political Ignorance Threatens Democracy.” Cato Institute Policy Analysis 525. September 22. Sniderman, Paul M. 2000. "Taking Sides: A Fixed Choice Theory of Political Reasoning." In Lupia et al. 2000.