Politics with Paul #28: Political Efficacy: How Well We Know and Impact Politics (And Think We Do)

Key Points

• While it may not necessarily be a consensus, levels of political efficacy have arguably been at one of their lowest points that they have ever been in American history.
• There are two basic types of political efficacy: Internal (the ability to understand politics) and external (the ability to affect politics). Yet even within these two types, there can be a difference between voters' self-perceptions of their efficacy and what their efficacy actually is.
• Measuring efficacy is also not a straightforward process as there are different ways to examine efficacy, including someone's educational background in civics, their level of involvement in politics, turnout rates, perceptions of government responsiveness, and public trust in institutions.
• Before we can start to try raising levels of political efficacy, we must ask difficult questions, including about the gaps in self-assessment of efficacy and actual efficacy level, the most important contributors to efficacy that we must address first, and what kind of funding would be needed for efficacy initiatives.