We Elect, Apparently, Idiots
Some unsurprising news:
US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday
Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).
So, ordinary people did better than elected officials? Maybe Bill Buckley was on to something with the Boston phonebook. The article continues:
The exam questions covered American history, the workings of the US government and economics.
Among the questions asked of some 2,500 people who were randomly selected to take the test, including “self-identified elected officials,” was one which asked respondents to “name two countries that were our enemies during World War II.”
Sixty-nine percent of respondents correctly identified Germany and Japan. Among the incorrect answers wereBritain, China, Russia, Canada, Mexico and Spain.
Forty percent of respondents, meanwhile, incorrectly believed that the US president has the power to declare war, while 54 percent correctly answered that that power rests with Congress.
Asked about the electoral college, 20 percent of elected officials incorrectly said it was established to “supervise the first televised presidential debates.” In fact, the system of choosing the US president via an indirect electoral college vote dates back some 220 years, to the US Constitution.
The question that received the fewest correct responses, just 16 percent, tested respondents’ basic understanding of economic principles, asking why “free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government’s centralized planning?”
You can take the test here. I got a question wrong on taxes and spending, but I blame that on imprecise wording[1]… . indeed, I think several of the questions are imprecise or unclear (including the one on free markets), but not enough to justify the poor performance described in the article above.
Now, notably, the survey pool is small, and the designation of “elected official” depends upon self-reporting. You can compare the results for normal people and the elected here. (h/t Tyler Cowen).
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[1] The question was:
33) If taxes equal government spending, then: A. government debt is zero B. printing money no longer causes inflation C. government is not helping anybody D. tax per person equals government spending per person E. tax loopholes and special-interest spending are absent
At first, I though A was a trick, in that yearly shortfalls are deficits, not cumulative debt, but the I realized that the question didn’t say it was limited to a single year, so I figured, if taxes always cover spending, you don’t have debt. D also seemed right, but I was thrown by the lack of the word “average” before “per person,” although “average” may be implied by the words “per person.” So I went with A, and that was wrong.
