Why Plato Thought Democracy Is A Bad Idea

D.A. Ridgely on Nov 25th 2008

What is the most depressing thing about this Pew Research Center table? No, it’s not the fact that The Daily Show / Colbert Report is at the top of the chart. Sure, I’m old but… Hey, you kids! Get off my lawn! No, it’s not that NewsHour and O’Reilly Factor and NPR and Rush Limbaugh are all neck and neck. That’s actually encouraging in a perverse sort of way. And no, it’s not that newspapers didn’t even make the top echelon. Screw ‘em. Nope. The most depressing thing about that table is the fact that it only required a score 15 of 23, roughly 65% correct (in other words, a grade of D), to be counted among the 35% of Americans deemed in the “High Knowledge Level” category!

Filed in The Basement, The Bookshelf

10 Responses to “Why Plato Thought Democracy Is A Bad Idea”

  1. # Januson 25 Nov 2008 at 3:43 pm

    Wow.

    Just… wow.

  2. # Scott Simmonson 25 Nov 2008 at 5:01 pm

    Well, what were the questions? In general, for easy & statistically significant sorting, you’d want enough hard questions that even fairly well-informed respondents would miss a fair number. Otherwise, random variation will swamp your genuine population variance.

    This is why all really good teachers write hellishly hard tests, and grade on a curve.

  3. # D.A. Ridgelyon 25 Nov 2008 at 5:37 pm

    Fair question, Mr. Simmons. Here’s a link for more information on the test. There’s a mini-quiz available which I took and got 11 out of 12 questions correctly. (Who’s got time to say within a 1000 points where the Dow ends up these days?) That’s not the 23 question quiz, but I have no reason to believe those 23 questions were substantially more difficult.

    BTW, one of the best things I ever heard one of my professors say was “I know why we bother to give them tests, I just don’t know why we bother to grade them.”

  4. # Alan Scotton 25 Nov 2008 at 9:15 pm

    Don’t forget that the original test wasn’t multiple choice.

    I also scored 11/12, but had I taken this test under the conditions of the phone poll (no multiple choice, pre wall-street crisis), I would have only scored 7/12.

    Actually the scariest part of the article is this

    On other questions, the differences attributable to alternative formats were less dramatic. About three-in-four (76%) were able to volunteer unaided that the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. When on the test respondents were asked which political party controlled the House, followed by the prompt: “Is it the Democratic Party or the Republican Party,” 82% answered correctly, a six-percentage point increase.

    six percent actually needed help narrowing the field down to democrats and republicans?!

  5. # James Kon 25 Nov 2008 at 11:14 pm

    Yeah, that’s not good.

  6. # Pseudo-Polymath » Blog Archive » Wednesday Highlightson 26 Nov 2008 at 8:53 am

    [...] than you thawt. So … explain the “get out the vote” thing [...]

  7. # Stones Cry Out - If they keep silent… » Things Heard: e42v3on 26 Nov 2008 at 8:55 am

    [...] than you thawt. So … explain the “get out the vote” thing [...]

  8. # Matt Huismanon 26 Nov 2008 at 9:23 am

    The low numbers are probably due to an oversampling of elected officials. Here’s a link to a similar test given to our best and the brightest.

  9. # Matton 26 Nov 2008 at 11:50 am

    If I’d known Plato mentioned the Daily Show I’d have read his stuff before. Ah well to the bookshop….

    Anyone know which one this is from?

  10. # Chuckon 26 Nov 2008 at 5:36 pm

    I also scored 11/12, missing the question about the Dow. I picked 8,000. The poll said that the right answer was 11,000. Who will test the testers?

    NB The dow is currently at 8,700.

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