{UAH} Why the ignorance index matters

Sadly, pervasive ignorance is hardly a new phenomenon, as scholar Ilya Somin points out in his book Democracy and Political Ignorance. 

He notes that only 38 percent of Americans knew that the Soviet Union was not a member of NATO in 1964, at the height of the Cold War. In 1986, a majority of Americans were unable to identify Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev by name.

Now, Somin concedes that it's rational for people to not worry about acquiring the knowledge to vote smarter because the chances of a single vote counting are negligible. 

But in the aggregate, it's scary when more than half of Americans don't know whether the Senate or House are controlled by Democrats or Republicans…which is the case, according to a recent poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

We all worry about the quality of politicians in today's democracies. But what about the quality of voters? How can we make decisions about war and peace, expenditures and values if citizens are totally wrong about the basic facts involved?

America's Founding Father James Madison, perhaps, put it best: "Popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both."

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2014/11/11/why-the-ignorance-index-matters/

Brian M. Kwesiga

President and CEO,

Ugandan North American Association - UNAA

972.415.6372 | www.unaa.org | "United We Stand"