In my last post, I explained why political ignorance matters. But how big a problem is it really? Perhaps the public is actually pretty knowledgeable. Unfortunately, it turns out that the problem is extremely severe. Most of the public knows very little about politics and public policy. They also often do a poor job of evaluating the political information they do know. Such ignorance and irrationality are not the result of "stupidity" or the unavailability of information. They are in fact perfectly rational behavior.

I. The Extent of  Political Ignorance

Political ignorance in America is deep and widespread. I give many examples in Chapter 1 of my book. Here are a couple that relate to issues at the heart of the political battle over the current government shutdown: Although Obamacare is at the center of that fight and has been a controversial issue for years, 44% percent of the public do not even realize it is still the law. Some 80 percent, according to a recent Kaiser survey, say they have heard "nothing at all" or "only a little" about the controversial insurance exchanges that are a major element of the law. Although the shutdown fight is just the latest manifestation of a longstanding conflict over federal spending exacerbated by an ongoing fiscal crisis, most of the public has very little idea of  how federal spending is actually distributed. They greatly underestimate the percentage that goes to big entitlement programs, and vastly overestimate that spent on foreign aid.

Public ignorance is not limited to information about  programs. The public is also often ignorant about the basic structure of government and how it operates. A 2006 Zogby survey found that only 42 percent can even name the three branches of the federal government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. There is also widespread ignorance and confusion about political ideology, and about such matters as which government officials are responsible for which issues. In Chapter 2 of the book, I discuss how the public's level of political knowledge falls below the minimum requirements of even relatively forgiving theories of democratic participation,  much less demanding ones, such as deliberative democracy.

This kind of ignorance is not a new phenomenon. Political knowledge has been at roughly the same low level since the start of modern public opinion polling in the 1930s and 40s. But it is striking that knowledge levels have risen very little, if at all, despite rising educational attainment and the increased availability of information through the internet, cable news, and other modern technologies.

II. Rational Ignorance and Rational Irrationality