A Dimensional Analysis of Political Knowledge

Although there is no clear recommendation of how much political information citizens require for taking “good” political decisions, there is no doubt that informed citizens are a sign of democratic health. Grasping how much citizens know about politics is however not an easy task, due to concerns regarding the format or content of available measures, researchers have not yet reached a consensus on the best survey instruments to measure it. For instance, issues have been raised regarding gender bias in standard political knowledge measures. There are also difficulties to identify hiding knowledge. Proposals are diverse regarding the “best” approach to ask for political knowledge such as the use of open or closed formats and specific “Don’t Know” protocols. In addition, few studies have addressed the distinct types of knowledge one can measure. Furthermore, proposed scales are often limited by the few number of items included in single surveys and the geographical scope in which those examinations took place (mainly the US). This paper examines the multidimensionality of political knowledge to discuss the opportunities of building one (or more) political knowledge scales that integrate diverse methodological and substantive aspects such as the format of the question (open and closed response options, verbal and visual questions) the type of knowledge they refer (factual and procedural questions) and the topic (economy, social policies, political actors, institutional features, etc.). For this task, we use a unique Spanish representative survey specifically designed to measure political knowledge that included up to 30 items, covering a large range of questions’ topics and formats. Following previous research, political knowledge dimensionality and the possibility to construct a scale are examined using Item Response Theory techniques.