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附：美國民眾測驗包含了100個問題，分五大類：美國政府、政治體制、權力和責任、美國歷史、美國公民。參與測驗的公民隨機抽取10道題目，至少回答正確6道題目才算合格。在參與測驗的1000人中，Daily Beast輪換抽取題目。總體來看，62％的美國人及格，38％不及格。美國人對美國公民方面知識差異巨大。以下一些題目顯示出哪些人回答正確，哪些人回答錯誤。
《獨立宣言》在何時發布？
答案：1776年7月4日
正確：67%
錯誤：33%
制憲會議上發生了什麼事情？
答案：制定憲法，或者開國元勛編寫了憲法
正確：35%
錯誤：65%
《聯邦黨人文集》對通過美國憲法起到了促進的作用，列出《聯邦黨人文集》的作者之一。
答案：James Madison、Alexander Hamilton、John Jay、Publius.
正確：12%
錯誤：88%
第一次世界大戰期間誰是美國總統？
答案：Woodrow Wilson.
正確：20%
錯誤：80%
美國在第二次世界大戰期間的敵人是誰？
答案：日本、德國、義大利
正確：60%
錯誤：40%
冷戰期間，美國最煩惱的是什麼問題？
答案：共產主義
正確：27%
錯誤：73%
Susan B. Anthony做了什麼事情？
答案：為女性的權力抗爭，或者為民眾的權力抗爭
正確：41%
錯誤：59%
馬丁路德金做了什麼事情？
答案：為民眾權力抗爭，或者致力於所有美國人的平等工作
正確：77%
錯誤：23%
誰掌管政府的行政部門？
答案：總統
正確：73%
錯誤：27%
我們選舉出的參議員任職多長時間？
答案：6年
正確：39%
錯誤：61%
眾議院有多少個投票席位？
答案：435
正確：14%
錯誤：86%
如果總統和副總統都無法繼續任職，誰將代任總統？
答案：白宮發言人
正確：58%
錯誤：42%
根據我們的憲法，一些權力屬於聯邦政府。列舉出一項聯邦政府的權力。
答案：印鈔、宣戰、建立軍隊、締約
正確：19%
錯誤：81%
最高法院中有幾名大法官？
答案：9
正確：37%
錯誤：63%
我們管憲法的前10條修正案叫什麼？
答案：權力和自由法案
正確：57%
錯誤：43%
國家至高無上的法律是什麼？
答案：憲法
正確：30%
錯誤：70%
憲法共有多少條修正案？
答案：27
正確：6%
錯誤：94%
現任美國副總統是誰？
答案：Joe Biden.
正確：71%
錯誤：29%
現任白宮發言人是誰？
答案：John Boehner.
正確：41%
錯誤：59%
美國的經濟體制是什麼？
答案：資本主義經濟或者市場經濟
正確：33%
錯誤：67%
原文：
NEWSWEEK gave 1,000 Americans the U.S. Citizenship Test--38 percent failed. The country's future is imperiled by our ignorance.
They』re the sort of scores that drive high-school history teachers to drink. When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America』s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn』t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn』t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn』t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.
Don』t get us wrong: civic ignorance is nothing new. For as long as they』ve existed, Americans have been misunderstanding checks and balances and misidentifying their senators. And they』ve been lamenting the philistinism of their peers ever since pollsters started publishing these dispiriting surveys back in Harry Truman』s day. (He was a president, by the way.) According to a study by Michael X. Delli Carpini, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, the yearly shifts in civic knowledge since World War II have averaged out to 「slightly under 1 percent.」
But the world has changed. And unfortunately, it』s becoming more and more inhospitable to incurious know-nothings—like us.
To appreciate the risks involved, it』s important to understand where American ignorance comes from. In March 2009, the European Journal of Communication asked citizens of Britain, Denmark, Finland, and the U.S. to answer questions on international affairs. The Europeans clobbered us. Sixty-eight percent of Danes, 75 percent of Brits, and 76 percent of Finns could, for example, identify the Taliban, but only 58 percent of Americans managed to do the same—even though we』ve led the charge in Afghanistan. It was only the latest in a series of polls that have shown us lagging behind our First World peers.
Most experts agree that the relative complexity of the U.S. political system makes it hard for Americans to keep up. In many European countries, parliaments have proportional representation, and the majority party rules without having to 「share power with a lot of subnational governments,」 notes Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker, coauthor of Winner-Take-All Politics. In contrast, we』re saddled with a nonproportional Senate; a tangle of state, local, and federal bureaucracies; and near-constant elections for every imaginable office (judge, sheriff, school-board member, and so on). 「Nobody is competent to understand it all, which you realize every time you vote,」 says Michael Schudson, author of The Good Citizen. 「You know you』re going to come up short, and that discourages you from learning more.」
It doesn』t help that the United States has one of the highest levels of income inequality in the developed world, with the top 400 households raking in more money than the bottom 60 percent combined. As Dalton Conley, an NYU sociologist, explains, 「it』s like comparing apples and oranges. Unlike Denmark, we have a lot of very poor people without access to good education, and a huge immigrant population that doesn』t even speak English.」 When surveys focus on well-off, native-born respondents, the U.S. actually holds its own against Europe.
Other factors exacerbate the situation. A big one, Hacker argues, is the decentralized U.S. education system, which is run mostly by individual states: 「When you have more centrally managed curricula, you have more common knowledge and a stronger civic culture.」 Another hitch is our reliance on market-driven programming rather than public broadcasting, which, according to the EJC study, 「devotes more attention to public affairs and international news, and fosters greater knowledge in these areas.」
For more than two centuries, Americans have gotten away with not knowing much about the world around them. But times have changed—and they』ve changed in ways that make civic ignorance a big problem going forward. While isolationism is fine in an isolated society, we can no longer afford to mind our own business. What happens in China and India (or at a Japanese nuclear plant) affects the autoworker in Detroit; what happens in the statehouse and the White House affects the competition in China and India. Before the Internet, brawn was enough; now the information economy demands brains instead. And where we once relied on political institutions (like organized labor) to school the middle classes and give them leverage, we now have nothing. 「The issue isn』t that people in the past knew a lot more and know less now,」 says Hacker. 「It』s that their ignorance was counterbalanced by denser political organizations.」 The result is a society in which wired activists at either end of the spectrum dominate the debate—and lead politicians astray at precisely the wrong moment.
The current conflict over government spending illustrates the new dangers of ignorance. Every economist knows how to deal with the debt: cost-saving reforms to big-ticket entitlement programs; cuts to our bloated defense budget; and (if growth remains slow) tax reforms designed to refill our depleted revenue coffers. But poll after poll shows that voters have no clue what the budget actually looks like. A 2010 World Public Opinion survey found that Americans want to tackle deficits by cutting foreign aid from what they believe is the current level (27 percent of the budget) to a more prudent 13 percent. The real number is under 1 percent. A Jan. 25 CNN poll, meanwhile, discovered that even though 71 percent of voters want smaller government, vast majorities oppose cuts to Medicare (81 percent), Social Security (78 percent), and Medicaid (70 percent). Instead, they prefer to slash waste—a category that, in their fantasy world, seems to include 50 percent of spending, according to a 2009 Gallup poll.
Needless to say, it』s impossible to balance the budget by listening to these people. But politicians pander to them anyway, and even encourage their misapprehensions. As a result, we』re now arguing over short-term spending cuts that would cost up to 700,000 government jobs, imperiling the shaky recovery and impairing our ability to compete globally, while doing nothing to tackle the long-term fiscal challenges that threaten … our ability to compete globally.
Given our history, it』s hard to imagine this changing any time soon. But that isn』t to say a change wouldn』t help. For years, Stanford communications professor James Fishkin has been conducting experiments in deliberative democracy. The premise is simple: poll citizens on a major issue, blind; then see how their opinions evolve when they』re forced to confront the facts. What Fishkin has found is that while people start out with deep value disagreements over, say, government spending, they tend to agree on rational policy responses once they learn the ins and outs of the budget. 「The problem is ignorance, not stupidity,」 Hacker says. 「We suffer from a lack of information rather than a lack of ability.」 Whether that』s a treatable affliction or a terminal illness remains to be seen. But now』s the time to start searching for a cure.
The U.S. citizenship test is comprised of 100 questions, across five categories: American government, systems of government, rights and responsibilities, American history and integrated civics. Ten questions from the 100 are chosen randomly for the test-taker. To pass, one must get at least six right. In its poll of 1,000 people, the Daily Beast rotated the questions. Beyond the topline—62 percent of Americans passed, 38 percent failed—there are huge discrepancies in the kinds of civic knowledge Americans collectively possess. The following is a look at some of the questions and the percentage of people who got them right and wrong.
When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
July 4, 1776.
Correct: 67%
Incorrect: 33%
What happened at the Constitutional Convention?
The Constitution was written, or the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.
Correct: 35%
Incorrect: 65%
The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, or Publius.
Correct: 12%
Incorrect: 88%
Who was president during World War I?
Woodrow Wilson.
Correct: 20%
Incorrect: 80%
Who did the United States fight in World War II?
Japan, Germany, and Italy.
Correct: 60%
Incorrect: 40%
During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States?
Communism.
Correct: 27%
Incorrect: 73%
What did Susan B. Anthony do?
Fought for women's rights or fought for civil rights.
Correct: 41%
Incorrect: 59%
What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?
Fought for civil rights or worked for equality for all Americans.
Correct: 77%
Incorrect: 23%
Who is in charge of the executive branch?
The president.
Correct: 73%
Incorrect: 27%
We elect a U.S. senator for how many years?
Six.
Correct: 39%
Incorrect: 61%
The House of Representatives has how many voting members?
435.
Correct: 14%
Incorrect: 86%
If both the president and the vice president can no longer serve, who becomes president?
The speaker of the House.
Correct: 58%
Incorrect: 42%
Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?
To print money, to declare war, to create an army, or to make treaties.
Correct: 19%
Incorrect: 81%
How many justices are on the Supreme Court?
Nine.
Correct: 37%
Incorrect: 63%
What do we call the first 10 amendments to the Constitution?
The Bill of Rights.
Correct: 57%
Incorrect: 43%
What is the supreme law of the land?
The Constitution.
Correct: 30%
Incorrect: 70%
How many amendments does the Constitution have?
27.
Correct: 6%
Incorrect: 94%
What is the name of the vice president of the United States now?
Joe Biden.
Correct: 71%
Incorrect: 29%
What is the name of the speaker of the House of Representatives now?
John Boehner.
Correct: 41%
Incorrect: 59%
What is the economic system in the United States?
Capitalist or market economy.
Correct: 33%
Incorrect: 67% |
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