Political Sophistication in Greece: Explaining the Paradox of a Politically Knowledgeable Electorate Pavlos Vasilopoulos, PhD Candidate, Department of Communication and Media Studies, University of Athens
[email protected] Paper prepared for presentation at the ELECDEM closing conference, Florence, 28-30 June 2012 *****DRAFT version***** Abstract: This paper presents the results of an analytical quantitative survey on levels of political sophistication in Greece measured by a twenty four item knowledge scale. Results suggest that the Greek public appears to be relatively well informed over political affairs. I argue that the explanation behind this ‘paradoxical’ pattern, which comes in contrast to the assumptions of rational choice theory and the frequently cited empirical findings in the United States, lies in the existence of strong clientelistic networks in Greece that increase the expected utility for acquiring political information. Still, even though political sophistication in Greece is generally high, there appears to be significant individual-level variation with regard to socioeconomic status, gender and age cohort. Introduction Political sophistication, defined as the ‘quantity and organization of a person’s political cognitions’ (Luskin 1987), is a fundamental concept for the understanding of citizens’ political decision-making processes1. Systematic research over the impact of political sophistication on the quality of political decisions has demonstrated that political experts have the cognitive capacity to form meaningful political attitudes based on their deeper held political predispositions (Zaller 1992) and make informed vote choices adjusting their vote to match candidates’ platforms (Lau and Redlawsk 1997, 2001). What is more, they are more likely to participate in elections and other political activities and are less susceptible to political propaganda (Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996).