Nearly Half of Americans Think President Can Suspend Constitution How many DPers can find Iraq on a map? Afghanistan? Iran? What about the number of Members of the House of Representatives?
This is really shocking! Public Education in the US must really suck. Maybe people are more concerned with entertainment, or buying the latest gadget or the fanciest car, rather than looking into the state of education. The US has the world's best Universities, but the schools are woefully inadequate by Western standards. Maybe this is the reason for the internal rot that has crept up into the society.
Well.. technically they're right. The president can do anything that the military and domestic police forces would be willing to back him up on. C'mon, most of the DPers here in Politics and Religion are pretty aware people, even if they come up with radically opposite conclusions. If these numbers are correct (even the article suggests some skepticism even if its for the sake of feeling better about things), you'll also have to consider that only some 5%-15% of the population actually spends time contemplating, researching, and debating political issues. This isn't just an American problem either: a large, large majority of the human population does not wish to consider "bigger questions" of society. Even people who enjoy policy debates have individual issues they have a hard time talking about, topics that are uncomfortable and dark to them. 80% of people in America inherit the political party of their parents - and partisan loyalty strongly correlates with its social cousin: religious affiliation. People are simply born into a religion and a political party and most will never give it any thought more than cheering for the home team - if they even bother to show up on Sundays and one Tuesday a year. Ahhhhh this one is important for the lefties to realize: 435 + 100 people in this country spend 30% of its GDP. And those 535 people spend a lot of time chastising the "evil rich." (The "average" federal representative spends about as much money each year as Bill Gates has collected in his entire lifetime.)
I agree with Korr. This isn't just an American problem. I'm sure a hell lot of people in India can't answer such questions about Indian constitution and parliamentary structure.
was the poll conducted only on publicly educated people? would results be different of the target were people educated in private schools/homes?
I can find Afghanistan and Iran and Iraq Perfectly I might have to search Google for the house of Representatives tho -Chris
You can't compare India, a third world country stricken to poverty, where 70% of the population still depends on agriculture for subsistence, where the average rural income is less than 2$ a day, wit the United States of America, supposedly the richest and strongest country in the world...
Why can't you? The thread isn't about any of the things you listed...it is about knowledge of the local government, and education.
Definitely not just a problem in America. It's everywhere. I've talked to people from the UK where I knew more about them than they did. America is just always under the spotlight. I love reading and learning
Forget about the poverty stricken people. Let's conduct a poll/survey and ask all the 'educated' people some questions about Indian parliament, constitution, etc. Do you think they'll be able to answer it? Hell, no. The common man, educated or otherwise, is not really interested in knowing things that don't affect him directly. He is more interested in day-to-day issues.
Maybe you are right about this. Rural India, though, is very active in Politics, coz they have little else to do, except to tend to their fields during the day, and discuss politics at dinner. They don't really have the leisure to do much of anything else.