What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters [Paperback]

Professor Michael X. Delli Carpini (Author), Scott Keeter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300072759 | ISBN-13: 978-0300072754 | Publication Date: September 23, 1997

In this, the most comprehensive analysis of the American public's knowledge of politics ever written, Michael Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter explore how levels of knowledge have changed over the past fifty years, how knowledge is distributed among different groups, and how it is used in political decision-making. The authors draw on extensive survey data, much of it original, to provide compelling evidence for the individual and collective benefits of a politically informed citizenry -- and the cost of a citizenry that is poorly and inequitably informed.

"An excellent.... The authors contribute usefully to the ongoing debate about the nature of and prospects for democracy in the U.S". -- Choice

"With clear prose, a deep sense of the normative implications of their enterprise, an imaginative new set of surveys, and analytic elegance, Delli Carpini and Keeter show us the contours of political knowledge and ignorance among Americans, why these contours exist, and why they matter". -- Jennifer L. Hochschild, Princeton University

"(This book) reflects years of data collection and much reading and thought about democratic citizenship. It is a first-rate, ... very important piece of research that will spark empirical and normative debate for years to come". -- James H. Kuklinski, Journal of Politics

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The American public's cynical attitude toward politics is much discussed, but what do Americans really know about politics? Two political scientists provide a detailed examination of who knows what, how much, and why it matters in American politics. Employing survey data of Americans for a nearly 50-year period and utilizing sophisticated statistical techniques, Delli Carpini (Barnard Coll.) and Keeter (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.) find that, while Americans are not as knowledgeable as they should be, they are not completely ignorant of politics and that the level of political knowledge has remained virtually unchanged over 40 years. Among the authors' other major findings: women, African Americans, the poor, and the young tend to be less politically knowledgeable than the rest of the population; and people with higher levels of motivation and skills tend to be better educated about politics. This excellent study places its quantitative research in the context of thoughtful and significant discussions of democratic theory. Recommended for political science students at all levels.?Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 23, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300072759
• ISBN-13: 978-0300072754
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #117,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an important book, October 10, 2000

By 

Stephen (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters (Paperback)

*What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters* is an important book in that it reveals how informed voters have more stable, consistent opinions and are much more resistant to irrelevant information (such as commentary in the media and campaign rhetoric, sound bites, and photo ops). It also reveals that informed voters hold opinions that more closely match those of the Founders of the United States -- including personal responsibility and limited federal powers -- than do those who are ignorant of the issues.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why this book Matters, April 24, 2004

By 

ab "ab" (bcs) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters (Paperback)

knowledge scales and political sophistication are key variables in social science studies that often are used without really thinking about what they mean or measure. This book provides insight into this problem and real solutions to solve it, in addition to the primary context of how informed americans are about politics. Great work and a must have for any collection.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Knows What and Why, March 8, 2004

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters (Paperback)

Anyone interested in the knowledge levels of the American public, especially in terms of political opinions and where that type of knowledge comes from, will find this book very informative and rewarding. Delli Carpini and Keeter have accumulated a very well researched and documented mass of data concerning what the American people know about many different categories of politics. In an enlightening fashion they break down political knowledge not just into different categories of information, but also by demographic categories in the general population. We find that socio-economic status is as important to political knowledge levels as personal interest or media exposure, leading to occasionally worrisome conclusions about how average people can truly make a difference.

This book does sometimes lapse into unnecessarily complex statistical models rife with under-explained regression analyses and coefficients (which should have been relegated to the Appendix section), while the writing style tends to be repetitive and is generally very verbose. Meanwhile, the conclusive analysis of "why it matters" is a bit rushed at the end of the book. But regardless of those issues, this book shows convincingly that the American public's knowledge of their own nation's politics is both more complex than may be expected, but that their knowledge is not always put to the most effective uses. Happily, the authors show that citizens typically do not consign political perceptions into simplistic liberal vs. conservative and black-and-white ideologies, as you may guess from the behavior of politicians and the media. However, we can also see here that the knowledge of the American masses is not frequently put to the best of uses, either by themselves or their leaders. [~doomsdayer520~]