while i supposed folks aren't blameless in the apparent lack of political knowledge that some convey (guy named eric smith wrote book length survey of massive amount of research on subject some years ago), maybe politicians foster/politics fosters some (a lot?) of it, maybe folks make best of 'bad'...
this stuff is bit out of my purview, but some contemporary opinion/behavior studies (i.e., huckfeldlt) have moved away from focusing on how little people know about politics to examining ways in which they are facilitated/thwarted within certain configurations of time, place, setting, in other words, political information, or lack thereof, is obtained at intersection of individually defined purpose and socially determined info supply, this stuff is decidedly more political than social psychological approach in that it is organized around view of interests/information located in characteristics not only of individuals, but also of groups and setting to which they belong...
of course, there's always 'rational ignorance' view... michael hoover -------------------------------------------------------------- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.