What Americans Know About Politics and Why it Matters - Hardcover

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

Scott Keeter is professor and chair of the department of political science and public administration at Virginia Commonwealth University.