Yet another alternate, culture-neutral way of asking about politics:
Q: How involved are you in your region’s politics compared to other people in your region? A: [choose one] () I’m among the most involved () I’m more involved than average () I’m about as involved as average () I’m less involved than average () I’m among the least involved
Requires people to self assess next to a cultural baseline, and self assessments of this sort are notoriously inaccurate. (I predict everyone will think they have above-average involvement).
Within a US-specific context, I would eschew these comparisons to a notional average and use the following levels of participation:
0 = indifferent to politics and ignorant of current events 1 = attentive to current events, but does not vote 2 = votes in presidential elections, but irregularly otherwise 3 = always votes 4 = always votes and contributes to political causes 5 = always votes, contributes, and engages in political activism during election seasons 6 = always votes, contributes, and engages in political activism both during and between election seasons 7 = runs for public office
I suspect that the average US citizen of voting age is a 2, but I don’t have data to back that up, and I am not motivated to research it. I am a 4, so I do indeed think that I am above average.
Those categories could probably be modified pretty easily to match a parliamentary system by leaving out the reference to presidential elections and just having “votes irregularly” and “always votes”
Editing to add—for mandatory voting jurisdictions, include a caveat that “spoiled ballot = did not vote”
Personally, I’m not sure I necessarily consider the person who runs for public office to be at a higher level of participation than the person who works for them.
I agree denotationally with that estimate, but I think you’re putting too much emphasis on voting in at least the 0-4 range. Elections (in the US) only come up once or exceptionally twice a year, after all. If you’re looking for an estimate of politics’ significance to a person’s overall life, I think you’d be better off measuring degree of engagement with current events and involvement in political groups—the latter meaning not only directed activism, but also political blogs, non-activist societies with a partisan slant, and the like.
For example: do you now, or have you ever, owned a political bumper sticker?
There might be people who don’t always (or even usually) vote yet they contribute to political causes/engage in political activism, for certain values of “political” at least.
I had not before encountered this form of protest. If I were living in a place with mandatory voting and anonymous ballots, I would almost surely write my name on the ballot to spoil it.
I had not before encountered this form of protest. If I were living in a place with mandatory voting and anonymous ballots, I would almost surely write my name on the ballot to spoil it.
I have never actually spoiled a ballot in a municipality-or-higher-level election (though voting for a list with hardly any chance whatsoever of passing the election threshold has a very similar effect), but in high school I did vote for Homer Simpson as a students’ representative, and there were lots of similarly hilarious votes, including (IIRC) ones for God, Osama bin Laden, and Silvio Berlusconi.
Requires people to self assess next to a cultural baseline, and self assessments of this sort are notoriously inaccurate. (I predict everyone will think they have above-average involvement).
I’d actually have guessed an average of below average.
I predict everyone will think they have above-average involvement
Bad prediction. While it’s hard to say since so few people around here actually vote, my involvement in politics is close enough to 0 that I’d be very surprised if I was more involved than average.
For comparison what would you say the average persons level of involvement in politics consists of? (To avoid contamination, don’t research or overthink the question just give us the average you were comparing yourself to).
Edit: The intuitive average other commenters compared themselves to would also be of interest.
Good question. I don’t know what the average person’s involvement is, and I seem to know a lot of people (at least online) who are very politically involved, so I may be misestimating whether my political activity is above or below average.
On posting this I made the prediction that the average assumed by most lesswrong commenters would be above the actual average level of participation.
I hypothesise this is because most LW commenters come from relatively educated or affluent social groups, where political participation is quite high. Whereas there are large portions of the population who do not participate at all in politics (in the US and UK a significant percentage don’t even vote in the 4-yearly national elections).
Because of this I would be very sceptical of self reported participation levels, and would agree a quantifiable measure would be better.
Yet another alternate, culture-neutral way of asking about politics:
Q: How involved are you in your region’s politics compared to other people in your region?
A: [choose one]
() I’m among the most involved
() I’m more involved than average
() I’m about as involved as average
() I’m less involved than average
() I’m among the least involved
Requires people to self assess next to a cultural baseline, and self assessments of this sort are notoriously inaccurate. (I predict everyone will think they have above-average involvement).
Within a US-specific context, I would eschew these comparisons to a notional average and use the following levels of participation:
0 = indifferent to politics and ignorant of current events
1 = attentive to current events, but does not vote
2 = votes in presidential elections, but irregularly otherwise
3 = always votes
4 = always votes and contributes to political causes
5 = always votes, contributes, and engages in political activism during election seasons
6 = always votes, contributes, and engages in political activism both during and between election seasons
7 = runs for public office
I suspect that the average US citizen of voting age is a 2, but I don’t have data to back that up, and I am not motivated to research it. I am a 4, so I do indeed think that I am above average.
Those categories could probably be modified pretty easily to match a parliamentary system by leaving out the reference to presidential elections and just having “votes irregularly” and “always votes”
Editing to add—for mandatory voting jurisdictions, include a caveat that “spoiled ballot = did not vote”
Personally, I’m not sure I necessarily consider the person who runs for public office to be at a higher level of participation than the person who works for them.
I agree denotationally with that estimate, but I think you’re putting too much emphasis on voting in at least the 0-4 range. Elections (in the US) only come up once or exceptionally twice a year, after all. If you’re looking for an estimate of politics’ significance to a person’s overall life, I think you’d be better off measuring degree of engagement with current events and involvement in political groups—the latter meaning not only directed activism, but also political blogs, non-activist societies with a partisan slant, and the like.
For example: do you now, or have you ever, owned a political bumper sticker?
Maybe: “How frequently do you visit websites/read media that have an explicit political slant?”
There might be people who don’t always (or even usually) vote yet they contribute to political causes/engage in political activism, for certain values of “political” at least.
I had not before encountered this form of protest. If I were living in a place with mandatory voting and anonymous ballots, I would almost surely write my name on the ballot to spoil it.
I do and I do. :)
I have never actually spoiled a ballot in a municipality-or-higher-level election (though voting for a list with hardly any chance whatsoever of passing the election threshold has a very similar effect), but in high school I did vote for Homer Simpson as a students’ representative, and there were lots of similarly hilarious votes, including (IIRC) ones for God, Osama bin Laden, and Silvio Berlusconi.
I’d actually have guessed an average of below average.
Bad prediction. While it’s hard to say since so few people around here actually vote, my involvement in politics is close enough to 0 that I’d be very surprised if I was more involved than average.
I have exactly zero involvement and so I’d never think that.
I think I have average or below-average involvement.
Maybe it would be better to ask about the hours/year spent on politics.
For comparison what would you say the average persons level of involvement in politics consists of? (To avoid contamination, don’t research or overthink the question just give us the average you were comparing yourself to).
Edit: The intuitive average other commenters compared themselves to would also be of interest.
Good question. I don’t know what the average person’s involvement is, and I seem to know a lot of people (at least online) who are very politically involved, so I may be misestimating whether my political activity is above or below average.
On posting this I made the prediction that the average assumed by most lesswrong commenters would be above the actual average level of participation.
I hypothesise this is because most LW commenters come from relatively educated or affluent social groups, where political participation is quite high. Whereas there are large portions of the population who do not participate at all in politics (in the US and UK a significant percentage don’t even vote in the 4-yearly national elections).
Because of this I would be very sceptical of self reported participation levels, and would agree a quantifiable measure would be better.