Stephen Earl Bennett

KNOW-NOTHINGS REVISITED AGAIN

Analyses of the same NORC poll relied on by Hyman and Sheatsley and a 1994 poll for theTimes Mirror Center for The People & The Press show that sizable portions of the U.S. public were “know-nothings” on both occasions. OLS regressions on both polls show that, although there are slight differences, essentially the same factors affect knowledge of international politics in 1946 and 1994. At bottom, Americans tend to be uninformed about foreign affairs because they are inattentive to events abroad. If it is true, as some students of U.S. foreign policy claim, that public opinion has an important and growing impact on national security policy, widespread public ignorance recalls Lippmanns concern about the “democratic malady.”

Comparing Americans' Political Information in 1988 and 1992

Although Americans were more active in the 1992 campaign and felt they were better informed than they had been in 1988, National Election Studies (NES) data from both years show that Americans were not substantially more knowledgeable. Two-stage-least-squares equations estimated on the 1988 and 1992 NES show that the processes of becoming informed were the same in both years. These analyses show, once again, the intractability of political ignorance in mass publics.

Antibacterial mesh sling: a prospective outcome analysis

OBJECTIVES To prospectively assess the outcome results of the Gore-Tex antibacterial mesh sling in women with pelvic prolapse and stress incontinence. METHODS Between July 1997 and November 1998, 30 women with stress incontinence and vaginal prolapse underwent vaginal reconstruction with the antibacterial mesh sling. All patients had documented stress incontinence by preoperative urodynamic evaluation. Postoperatively, we conducted an outcome analysis on the basis of the results from a self-reported satisfaction questionnaire, a detailed pelvic examination, a cough stress test, and the Q-tip test. Urodynamic studies were performed on patients with persistent stress incontinence or urge symptoms. Cystoscopy was performed on patients suspected of having urethral erosion. RESULTS Complete follow-up was available for all 30 patients. Of the group, 12 (40.0%) of 30 underwent implantation of the antibacterial mesh sling alone and 18 (60.0%) underwent additional prolapse repair. The mean follow-up was 18 months (range 9 to 24); mean age was 58 years (range 29 to 87). Stress incontinence was cured in 28 (93.3%) of 30 patients. De novo urge incontinence developed in 1 (5.2%) of 18 patients; urge symptoms persisted in 5 (41.7%) of 12 patients. The postoperative mean Valsalva Q-tip angle was 15 degrees (range 0 degrees to 25 degrees ). The incidence of urethral obstruction and erosion was zero. The mean postoperative pain score was 3 of 10 (range 0 to 6), and the mean satisfaction score was 9 of 10 (range 7 to 10). The mean time to discharge was 21 hours (range 6 to 29). All 30 women (100%) were willing to undergo surgery again. CONCLUSIONS The safety profile of the Gore-Tex antibacterial mesh is better than that of the conventional Gore-Tex sling. When meticulous surgical technique is used, excellent short-term results can be achieved in the correction of female stress incontinence.

Democratic competence, before converse and after

Abstract The topic of the democratic publics limited competence has preoccupied students of democracy for centuries. Anecdotal concerns about the problem reached their peak of sophistication in the writings of Walter Lippmann and Joseph Schumpeter. Not until Philip E. Converses “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics” did statistical research overwhelmingly confirm the worst fears of such democratic skeptics. Subsequent work has tended to confirm Converses picture of a tiny stratum of well‐informed ideological elites whose passionate political debates find little echo, or even awareness, in the mass public. While a great deal of attention has been devoted to “saving” democratic legitimacy from such findings, the Converse‐inspired work of John Zaller (1992) shows how fruitful Converses basic ideas can be not only in analyzing real‐world political events, but in pulling together and stimulating new lines of research into what moves the “creative synthesizers” of belief systems; into the factors that affect the small numbers of people who grasp such systems and attempt to transmit them to the public; and into the long‐term psychological or cultural sources of the predispositions with which members of the mass public confront the resulting political messages.

THE IRRELEVANCE OF ECONOMIC THEORY TO UNDERSTANDING ECONOMIC IGNORANCE

ABSTRACT Bryan Caplan’s The Myth of the Rational Voter treats several immensely important and understudied topics—public ignorance of economics, political ideology, and their connection to policy error—from an orthodox economic perspective whose applicability to these topics is overwhelmingly disproven by the available evidence. Moreover, Caplan adds to the traditional and largely irrelevant orthodox economic notion of rational public ignorance the claim that when voters favor counterproductive economic policies, they do so deliberately, i.e., knowingly. This leads him to assume (without any evidence) that “emotion or ideology” explain mass economic error. Straightforward, unchosen mass ignorance of economic principles—neither “rational” nor “irrational,” but simply mistaken—is a more coherent explanation for economic error, and it is backed up by the vast body of public‐opinion research.

Knowledge of Politics and Sense of Subjective Political Competence The Ambiguous Connection

In this article I use pooled data from the 1988 and 1992 National Election Studies to explore the relationship between knowledge of politics and belief that one can understand the political universe. Although the 2 are related, the association is weaker than might be anticipated. Moreover, the meaning of the belief that one is sometimes confused by political affairs varies according to how well-informed citizens are. Among those who are largely ignorant of politics, admitting that public affairs are sometimes baffling seems to constitute a confession of political incapacity. For those who are well-informed, however, stating that one sometimes finds politics confusing is related to lack of trust in political leaders. Finally, among the well-informed, at least, believing that one sometimes cannot understand politics is related to lower rates of electoral participation.

Changing levels of political information in 1988 and 1990

The 1988 and 1990 National Election Studies indicate that the public is less politically informed in a low-stimulus election year than after a high-stimulus campaign. Although the same factors are responsible for what people know in each year, the process of becoming informed in an information-poor environment is slightly different than in an information-rich atmosphere. The data also show that, just as Angus Campbells surge and decline theory predicts, “core” voters are slightly more knowledgeable than “peripheral” voters.

From Traditional To Modern Conceptions of Gender Equality in Politics: Gradual Change and Lingering Doubts

A n important development in American politics during the 1980s was the disappearance of gender differences in turnout. The Center for Political Studies (CPS) conducted voter validation studies for each of its National Election Studies (NES) during the last decade except 1982. On each of the four NESs, the difference between womens and mens validated rates of turnout was statistically insignificant. The CPS found, for example, that 56 percent of women and 59 percent of men had actually gone to the polls in 1988. A percentage difference that small could happen by chance in three out of every four surveys of the same size (x2=1 .2 0, df=1, p=.27). Women now also equal men in reported voting in local elections. The National Opinion Research Centers (NORC) 1987 General Social Survey found that women were just as likely as men to report voting in all or almost all local elections (68 vs. 68 percent).1 Gender parity in turnout ends a tradition of lower turnout among women dating back to ratification of the 19th Amendment just before the 1920 election. Much has changed in womens involvement in society and politics during the past quarter-century. They are more likely to be in the workforce, even if they are married and have young children. By 1987, for example, 57 percent of married women with children under six years old were in the labor force. This was a 27 percent increase from 1970 (U.S. Bureau of the Census [BOC] 1987: 374). In addition to the increasing likelihood to vote noted above, more women have

Gaps in Americans' Knowledge About the Bosnian Civil War

This study applies the knowledge gap theory to the American publics knowledge of the Bosnian civil war between September 1992—when the conflict was in its early days—through June 1995. Our goal was to determine if a knowledge gap existed in the case of the Bosnian civil war, and if so, whether it increased or decreased over time. Times Mirror Center polls clearly establish that the better educated knew more about Bosnia from September 1992 through June 1995. But people from all educational levels showed dramatic improvements in knowledge. The so-called knowledge gap declined rather than increased. Our surprising results may be due to the changing context and duration of the conflict. Attention to the Bosnia crisis increased over these 3 years, with people from all backgrounds more motivated to pay attention. In addition, the nightly network news provided frequent coverage of Bosnia. Thus, all segments of the American public learned more about the crisis.

The Things They Cared About Change and Continuity in Americans’ Attention to Different News Stories, 1989–2002

Pew Research Center polls in 1989, 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002 show that Americans pay more attention to media accounts of nonpolitical stories than those about national, international, and local politics. Although Americans’ attentiveness to political news rose between 2000 and 2002, attention to media accounts of politics remained below where it had been in 1989. For the most part, the relative rankings of attentiveness to different kinds of news stories remained the same. The authors also explore the factors that predict attention to political news.Finally,heed paid to media stories about politics appears to affect two important facets of democratic citizenship: political knowledge and participation.