Failing Civics

Kerby Anderson, Point of View: What do Americans know about history, government, and economics? Apparently, not very much. More than twice as many American, 56%, know that Paula Abdul is a judge on "American Idol" as know that the phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people" comes from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. This is even more amazing when you consider the President-elect Barack Obama used this phrase in his election-night victory speech.

A study by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute found that Americans are nearly illiterate when it comes to basic principles of American history, government, and economics. More than 2,000 people were administered a 33 question test, and 71% of them failed. What was even more remarkable is that there wasn't much difference in scores when you factored in age, educational achievement, or even political involvement. Young Americans failed, but so did the elderly. Liberals and conservatives did about the same. Republicans did slightly better than Democrats and Independents but the difference was not that significant. But the biggest surprise to me was the politicians actually did worse than the average American. So much for electing qualified and well-informed people to office!

Most Americans would fail a typical high school civics test. Less than half of all Americans can name all three branches of government. Only 27% of Americans know that the Bill of rights prohibits the government from establishing an official religion in the U.S. Even a smaller percentage of elected officeholders knew this. A large number (43%) of politicians did not know what the Electoral College does, and only 32% of politicians could define the free-enterprise system, even though many of them campaigned for office pledging to defend it. It's pretty obvious that most of Americans need a civics lesson. Our government depends on it. I'm Kerby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

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Tags: Americans, Economics, government, History, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, ISI To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!