The Fact of Experience: Rethinking Political Knowledge and Civic Competence

Abstract

In the study of political knowledge, the emphasis on facts is misplaced. Evidence has grown that predispositions and social contexts shape how individuals are exposed to and interpret facts about politics, and the ready availability of information in the contemporary media environment may exacerbate these biases. We reexamine political knowledge from the bottom up. We look at what citizens themselves treat as relevant to the task of understanding public affairs and how they use this information. We draw upon our research in three different projects involving observation of political talk and elite interviews to do so. We observe that people across a range of levels of political engagement process political information through the lens of their personal experience. Failing to acknowledge this aspect of the act of using political information presents an incomplete empirical understanding of political knowledge. We propose an Expanded Model of Civic Competence that presents an alternative interpretation for what it means to be an informed citizen in a democracy. In this model, the competence of listening to and understanding the different lived experiences of others cannot be considered separately from levels of factual knowledge.

The gender gap in political interest revisited

“…Scholars have called for a broadening of our conception of the political (Campbell and Winter, 2008; Coffe, 2013; Cramer and Toff, 2017; Ferrin et al, 2018; Stolle and Gidengil, 2010). This strategy has proven useful in understanding that women do not simply stay away from politics, but tend to know facts, use participatory channels, and become interested in issues that differ from those associated with men, indicating that personal experience constitutes a vital and often overlooked factor that citizens employ to obtain information and develop an engagement with politics.…”

Reconceptualizing Political Knowledge: Race, Ethnicity, and Carceral Violence

“…Furthermore, the extent to which the public possesses political knowledge is often used as an evaluative criterion for general claims of civic competence. Specifically, those who possess more knowledge about national institutional politics, or what is often called general political knowledge, are presumed to be more informed, and therefore more politically competent than those who know less (but see Lupia 2016; Cramer and Toff 2017). Given the importance of the idea of general political knowledge, one worrying finding to emerge from past research is that there are large group differences in knowledge levels (e.g., Verba, Schlozman, and Brady1995; Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996).…”

Fostering Democratic and Social-Emotional Learning in Action Civics Programming: Factors That Shape Students’ Learning From Project Soapbox

“…Alongside the growth in attention to action civics has been a growing recognition that listening and other social and emotional capacities are vital for both academic development and civic engagement (cf. Cramer & Toff, 2017; Levine, 2013; Weissberg, Durlak, Domitrovich, & Gullotta, 2015). Scholars have emphasized the relational dimensions of citizenship as central to solving the problems facing us as democratic societies, arguing that we should aim to increase interpersonal practices such as listening, particularly to those different from ourselves, in order to improve trust, develop community, build empathy, and foster equity (Allen, 2004; Cramer & Toff, 2017; Dobson, 2012; Levine, 2013).…”

“…Cramer & Toff, 2017; Levine, 2013; Weissberg, Durlak, Domitrovich, & Gullotta, 2015). Scholars have emphasized the relational dimensions of citizenship as central to solving the problems facing us as democratic societies, arguing that we should aim to increase interpersonal practices such as listening, particularly to those different from ourselves, in order to improve trust, develop community, build empathy, and foster equity (Allen, 2004; Cramer & Toff, 2017; Dobson, 2012; Levine, 2013). Democratic theorists as well as experts on social-emotional development suggest that attentive listening engenders empathy, allows for vulnerability, builds relationships, and develops a sense of connection among individuals—democratic orientations that lead, in turn, to broader outcomes such as building trust and bridging political rifts (Allen, 2004; Cramer & Toff, 2017; Levine, 2013; Weissberg et al, 2015).…”