Seventy-one percent of adults failed a civic (and economic) literacy test, according to Our Fading Heritage by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
* Liberals score 49%; conservatives score 48%. Republicans score 52%; Democrats score 45%.
* Fewer than half of all Americans can name all three branches of government, a minimal requirement for understanding America’s constitutional system.
College graduates averaged 57 percent, still a failing score. Only 24 percent of college grads knew that the First Amendment bars establishment of religion.
Those who said they’ve held elected office averaged 44 percent: Twenty percent said the Electoral College “trains those aspiring for higher office” or “was established to supervise the first televised presidential debates.”
I got 100 percent on the test, though I had to think about some of the economic questions.
100%
32 out of 33 97%
31 out of 33. Damnit!
31/33, though I plead that on one of them there was no correct answer.
Still, it’s a bit over the top. If you expect civic literacy to include the philosophies of the Greeks and Aquinas, well, you’re going to be disappointed at what you find.
100%!
Some of those questions are pretty picky, though. If you know the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, is it important to know exactly which amendment does it?
It would be good if more people knew the right answer to the Keynesian spending one, though.
The ones I missed shouldn’t be on the quiz:-)
I missed the last one - being right 97% of the time is exhausting.
I got 100%. I’m a social studies teacher though, and a perfectionist, so I should have done well.
To change enough state laws to make every vote in every state politically relevant and equal in presidential elections, support the National Popular Vote bill.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC). The bill would take effect only when enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes (270 of 538). When the bill comes into effect, all the electoral votes from those states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
The bill is currently endorsed by 1,181 state legislators — 439 sponsors (in 47 states) and an additional 742 legislators who have cast recorded votes in favor of the bill.
The National Popular Vote bill has been approved by 21 legislative chambers (one house in CO, AR, ME, NC, and WA, and two houses in MD, IL, HI, CA, MA, NJ, RI, and VT). It has been enacted into law in Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Maryland. These states have 50 (19%) of the 270 electoral votes needed to bring this legislation into effect.
see http://www.NationalPopularVote.com
I couldn’t support it, for all the usual reasons. Anyway, what’s the electoral college’s maximum historical error relative to popular vote– around one percent? Vote-splitting in a three-way race can easily top that error by a factor of twenty. Abolishing the electoral college won’t help.
I don’t agree with some of the economic questions (thought I did get them correct)
I think they questions should be modified to state in Keynesian economic models…
I mean its a model and a good one, but by no means perfect.
On the other hand I am no economist, I could just be talking out of the wrong end of my body.
Aside from Keynesian economics being the economic model that got us into the current economic mess we’re in, and which will keep us mired here as long as the politicians keep believing in it, I didn’t find anything particularly Keynesian about the questions. Was I missing something?