Why So Many Voters Are Under-Informed
By Alex Gauthier on 02/04/2013 in economics, elections, independent voters, national, personal finances, voters with 4 CommentsRead Time: 2 - 2 minutes
George Mason University’s LearnLiberty, an online resource for ‘the ideas of a free society,’ released an interesting video last week illustrating the economic incentives that inevitably promote poor civic engagement. The economics behind the argument, paraphrased by Professor Diana Smith, helps explain why so many voters are under-informed and easily misinformed when electing candidates.
Is it because Americans are unintelligent? Not at all. The economic incentives driving an average citizens’ decisions direct them towards activities that more directly benefit them. It just doesn’t make economic sense for an average citizen to spend the necessary time, energy, and money to become what most would consider well-informed. Tweet
However, there are some economic incentives for greater involvement. If a proposed regulation will negatively impact your business or company, it makes a lot of sense to invest money and time in both educating yourself and others as to why such a regulation will be a bad thing. Tweet
Thus, we can see how a clearer picture emerges as to why an average citizen seems to have such little influence on the political process, not only are they disengaged, but they have little financial stake in being engaged.
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4 Comments
James M Bennett
02.04.2013
@jbennettatty
This is a very perceptive piece. Many citizens are burdened by information overload making them dependent on those who can “digest” information for them. “Digesters” with a personal agenda are thus able to wield undue influence over the process. A corollary problem is the number of newspapers one must read in order to be informed at all levels of government.
Some voters do not possess education in appropriate areas to permit them to analyze and evaluate political noise. Other voters just are not interested in public issues. It is human nature to spend time at pursuits of interest and let other pursuits go. There is a good sports analogy. People who don’t follow sports tend to tune in only during the World Series or the Superbowl. Voters become interested only days before a Presidential election (and they often register too late).
The difference is, choices of sports fans don’t affect my life. Ignorant voters unfortunately do. Voters who describe themselves any of the above categories tend to vote on emotion.
Every eligible voter needs to have the opportunity to register to vote, but when ignorant voters exercise the franchise foolishly, the country suffers. There appears to be no easy answer. Blog sites such as this one help. This site and other gumshoe efforts to educate people on public issues must continue. Hopefully over time the cumulative effect of voter mistakes will self-correct.
Lucas Eaves
02.04.2013
@lucaseaves
Very instructive video. Knowing better why people are not interested in politics will definitely help how to inform them better. Its a necessary step.
Xander Pakzad
02.04.2013
@xanderpakzad
One reason people don’t feel that civic engagement directly benefits them is because they are unable to see that their actions belong to a greater whole. We’re taught to care about ourselves as individuals, partitioned off from each other. Rarely do we consider the ramifications of our actions (and political beliefs) on the rest of the population because we don’t have that sense of group identity. Modern technology furthers this fragmentation, replacing what should be a public forum with niche audiences and viewer-specific content.
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02.20.2013
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