{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/121348"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/121348","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"More complicated than we thought: An examination of political knowledge, efficacy, and engagement in the comparative context","abstract":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-08-01","abstract_html":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-08-01","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Bail, Kristin Marie"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Political Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Althaus, Scott","Canache, Damarys","Mondak, Jeffrey J","Winters, Matthew"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-08","date_published":"2023-08","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:57Z","subjects":["Political Knowledge","Political Sophistication","Political Engagement","Political Efficacy","Comparative Behavior"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2023 Kristin Bail"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121348","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Althaus, Scott","Canache, Damarys","Mondak, Jeffrey J","Winters, Matthew"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Bail, Kristin Marie"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2023-08","2023-07-11"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Political Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Political Knowledge","Political Sophistication","Political Engagement","Political Efficacy","Comparative Behavior"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2023 Kristin Bail"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121348"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-08-01","The student, Kristin Bail, accepted the attached license on 2023-07-10 at 09:52.","The student, Kristin Bail, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2023-07-10 at 09:58.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2023-07-11 at 11:32.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #19586 on 2023-12-04 at 17:18:26","Despite its theoretical grounding as a tool citizens use to facilitate the practice of democracy, empirical social science research typically relies on unidimensional measurement strategies developed for use in the US, wherein a parsimonious index emphasizing civics facts serves as a proxy for latent skills or abilities such as political sophistication. Such a strategy may be appropriate in an ideologically sorted, two-party system such as the United States, but rests on uncertain validity where the practice of politics is characterized by more volatile party systems, revolves around individuals rather than parties, or centers identities unrelated to ideology. In my dissertation, I consider how cross-national variation in characteristics of political systems influences the accumulation of political knowledge in different political contexts. Throughout, I leverage data from multiple cross-national surveys, spanning over 80 individual countries, to demonstrate that the discipline’s current approach to political knowledge underestimates the true complexity of how the information citizens use to navigate their political environments is organized and distributed. First, I use tests of dimensionality to provide evidence that appropriately structured batteries in low- and middle-income countries demonstrate multiple political knowledge dimensions. Second, I consider how institutional contexts are related to the type and amount of information present in a system, demonstrating the differential impact of electoral and party systems on national and subnational types of knowledge. Third, I assess the relationship between political knowledge and key attitudinal and behavioral outcomes such as political efficacy and participation, indicating that relationships between different types of political knowledge and participation vary according to the mode of engagement. In so doing, I demonstrate that standard knowledge batteries frequently mask the broader dynamics of what citizens know about politics."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["More complicated than we thought: An examination of political knowledge, efficacy, and engagement in the comparative context"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Althaus, Scott","Canache, Damarys","Mondak, Jeffrey J","Winters, Matthew"],"dc:creator":["Bail, Kristin Marie"],"dc:date":["2023-08","2023-07-11"],"dc:description":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-08-01","The student, Kristin Bail, accepted the attached license on 2023-07-10 at 09:52.","The student, Kristin Bail, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2023-07-10 at 09:58.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2023-07-11 at 11:32.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #19586 on 2023-12-04 at 17:18:26","Despite its theoretical grounding as a tool citizens use to facilitate the practice of democracy, empirical social science research typically relies on unidimensional measurement strategies developed for use in the US, wherein a parsimonious index emphasizing civics facts serves as a proxy for latent skills or abilities such as political sophistication. Such a strategy may be appropriate in an ideologically sorted, two-party system such as the United States, but rests on uncertain validity where the practice of politics is characterized by more volatile party systems, revolves around individuals rather than parties, or centers identities unrelated to ideology. In my dissertation, I consider how cross-national variation in characteristics of political systems influences the accumulation of political knowledge in different political contexts. Throughout, I leverage data from multiple cross-national surveys, spanning over 80 individual countries, to demonstrate that the discipline’s current approach to political knowledge underestimates the true complexity of how the information citizens use to navigate their political environments is organized and distributed. First, I use tests of dimensionality to provide evidence that appropriately structured batteries in low- and middle-income countries demonstrate multiple political knowledge dimensions. Second, I consider how institutional contexts are related to the type and amount of information present in a system, demonstrating the differential impact of electoral and party systems on national and subnational types of knowledge. Third, I assess the relationship between political knowledge and key attitudinal and behavioral outcomes such as political efficacy and participation, indicating that relationships between different types of political knowledge and participation vary according to the mode of engagement. In so doing, I demonstrate that standard knowledge batteries frequently mask the broader dynamics of what citizens know about politics."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121348"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2023 Kristin Bail"],"dc:subject":["Political Knowledge","Political Sophistication","Political Engagement","Political Efficacy","Comparative Behavior"],"dc:title":["More complicated than we thought: An examination of political knowledge, efficacy, and engagement in the comparative context"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Political Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:57Z"}