{"id":9343,"date":"2007-11-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-15T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irpp.org\/research-studies\/political-knowledge-and-participation-among-young-canadians-and-americans\/"},"modified":"2017-12-04T13:10:47","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T18:10:47","slug":"political-knowledge-and-participation-among-young-canadians-and-americans","status":"publish","type":"research-studies","link":"https:\/\/irpp.org\/fr\/research-studies\/political-knowledge-and-participation-among-young-canadians-and-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Knowledge and Participation Among Young Canadians and Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Political knowledge is a democratic value. It is also an important ingredient in democratic citizenship, influencing public attitudes and opinions and, thus, political behaviour. From existing studies we have learned that political knowledge tends to affect the number of beliefs individuals have, making it easier to decide on issues and to clarify behavioural intentions. But there remains a gaping hole when it comes to comparative, international studies. <\/span><\/p>\n

For the last decade Henry Milner has been working on developing indicators for comparing levels of political knowledge in mature democracies and linking these to political participation. He has shown that when we compare countries as to the proportion of their citizens with the minimum levels of political knowledge needed to make effective political choices (civic literacy), we find good evidence that the positive relationship between political participation and political knowledge holds for countries as well for individuals. <\/span><\/p>\n

As voter turnout and other forms of conventional democratic participation have recently declined, especially among young people and quite acutely in Canada, this relationship has become critical. A previous IRPP study by Milner (2005) shows that political knowledge, or the lack of it, was central to this decline. But the lack of cross-national data inhibited drawing clear prescriptions for action \u2013 except for the need for comparative survey data on political knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n

If political knowledge is an important determinant of political participation, we need aggregate indicators to be able to test the effects on political knowledge of various policy and institutional choices. This applies especially to the political participation of young people. Youth political participation levels have declined in recent decades in almost all Western democracies, but the degree varies considerably across nations. Hence the phenomenon is both generational and contextual; that is, it is a consequence of national institutions and policy choices. To disentangle these, the first step is to survey young people in two or more comparable societies using a common set of political knowledge questions. Henry Milner begins to take up this challenge in this paper with an analysis of the results of the initial application of a set of political knowledge questions designed to be used in Canada and the United States. The resulting questionnaires allowed for 8 possible correct political knowledge answers for US respondents, and 10 for Canadians, 7 of which are common to both. It is this combined score out of 7 that serves as the main indicator of political knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n

These were included in two recent surveys focusing on young people. One was carried out in the United States in May 2006 with 1,765 respondents, of whom 1,209 were aged 15 to 25. The other was carried out in Canada in September 2006 (and is being reported for the first time here), with 1,354 respondents, of whom 877 were aged 15 to 25. Apart from the political knowledge questions, 60 questions dealt with various forms of unconventional and unconventional political participation, media use, civic education, voluntary association participation, as well as relevant attitudes to political parties, the role of government, and so on. <\/span><\/p>\n

The starting point of a comparative analysis of political knowledge in Canada \u2013 as in other aspects of culture, values and attitudes \u2013 is with the United States, given how much this country is affected by American developments. The exceptional opportunity of including common questions related to political knowledge in youth surveys in the two countries was thus one not to be ignored. While <\/span>Canadian studies of youth political engagement have been much influenced by American findings and priorities, few replicate the actual survey questions and sampling methodology, and none include common political knowledge questions. Beyond providing a rare chance to assess what young Canadians know about politics compared with their American peers, the combined surveys make it possible to ask whether the American approach to tackling low levels of youth turnout is indeed appropriate for Canada.<\/p>\n

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Young Canadians’ political knowledge is low \u2013 only slightly higher than the level of their American counterparts and, therefore, low compared with Europe. This suggests that European nations are better at disseminating the information and skills needed to turn its young people into participating citizens, and raises the question of whether Canadians should look there, rather than to the United States, in seeking to address the issue. <\/span><\/p>\n

Milner concludes that emulating the stress in the US on involvement in nonpartisan voluntary group activities as we seem to be doing could prove less effective than an alternative approach taken by high civic literacy countries in Europe, whereby political knowledge is regarded as the basis of meaningful political participation. It stresses measures that raise the level of political knowledge by making the environment of young people rich in political information, targeting especially those lacking the resources to gain access to it on their own. It looks to government programs in education, media support, political party financing, information dissemination, and so on, and, unlike the US, does not try to isolate civic education from partisan politics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Political knowledge is a democratic value. It is also an important ingredient in democratic citizenship, influencing public attitudes and opinions and, thus, political behaviour. From existing studies we have learned that political knowledge tends to affect the number of beliefs individuals have, making it easier to decide on issues and to clarify behavioural intentions. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9343","research-studies","type-research-studies","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n