“Immediately before the 2004 presidential election, almost 70 percent of U.S. citizens were unaware that Congress had added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, though this was a giant increase to the federal budget and the largest new entitlement program since President Lyndon Johnson began the War on Poverty.”

“In 1964, only a minority of citizens knew that the Soviet Union was not a member of NATO…the organization created to oppose the Soviet Union.”

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/dont-kid-yourself-about-the-ignorance-of-american-voters/

by Joseph Solis-Mullen

A couple weeks back, the managing editor here at the Libertarian Institute, Keith Knight, posted on Twitter/X about voter ignorance. The post, which featured the headline “Monetary Policy by the Taylor Rule,” along with the associated equation, concluded with the comment: “What % of voters know this and can comprehend this? How long would it take to teach everyone? Democracy is a joke, privitize [sic] everything.”

While voters might be forgiven for not being able to parse the arcane occult of highly mathematized macroeconomic policy—no matter their other scholastic qualifications, those lacking graduate training in economics are unlikely to be able to do so—a survey of voter competency across a broader range of metrics provides no great comfort.

Indeed, Knight’s criticism and prescription stand.

Consider the following recent examples a quick search revealed:

• 2017 Annenberg Public Policy Center Study: This found that only 26% of Americans could name all three branches of government, while 33% couldn’t name any branches at all, underscoring a lack of basic civic knowledge.
• 2010 Pew Research Center Knowledge Survey: Around 45% of respondents did not know that the Republican Party was generally considered more conservative than the Democratic Party, indicating a basic lack of understanding about the ideological differences between the major parties.
• 2018 National Election Studies: A significant number of voters misidentified which party controlled Congress. Despite widespread media coverage, many voters were confused about which party had the majority in the U.S. House and Senate, demonstrating low political awareness.
• 2010 Survey by Xavier University: This survey found that one-third of voters did not know that the Bill of Rights is part of the U.S. Constitution, revealing a gap in basic constitutional knowledge.
• 2019 Quinnipiac University Poll: This found that a significant percentage of Americans, over 50%, believed that Social Security was funded by a government trust fund rather than through a pay-as-you-go system where current workers’ payroll taxes fund current retirees’ benefits.

These instances illustrate a wide range of voter ignorance, from misinformation to a lack of knowledge about key political processes, policies, and historical facts. They highlight the challenges voters face in making informed decisions in elections—and this is hardly new!

Consider these earlier instances of voter ignorance, provided by the political scientist Jason Brennan in his Against Democracy:

See the rest here