POSC150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Rational Ignorance
Document Summary
Demos the people comes from greece and their old political system: old white men would sit around and talk about politics. Different views of what the public is capable of. Only like 1/3 of the public knows the branches of the government, know much about the constitution, what our economic system, etc: citizens need to know who is in charge but they generally don"t, amusingly enough. Ex: only 99. 8% of the american population knows who the current president is: policy knowledge. Percent of budget spent on education: 3% People are generally really all over the place. When guesses are taken randomly the average is generally the actual number. If misinformed then using that knowledge to make decisions. Data can be very unclear so how do we interpret it: ex: polls. Do they raise the budget to 20% or is it saying to decrease the budget by 1/3. A political, self-interested actors: rational ignorance.
