Knowledge of politics and sense of subjective political competence: The ambiguous connection

relationship between knowledge of politics and belief that one can understand the political universe. Although the 2 are related, the association is weaker than might be anticipated. More-over, the meaning of the belief that one is sometimes confused by political affairs varies according to how well-informed citizens are. Among those who are largely ignorant of politics, admitting that public affairs are sometimes baffling seems to constitute a confession of political incapacity. For those who are well-informed, however, stating that one sometimes finds politics confusing is related to lack of trust in political leaders. Finally, among the well-informed, at least, believing that one sometimes cannot understand politics is related to lower rates of electoral participation. Two well-known generalizations about American political behavior are that many citizens do not know much about politics and most of them believe public affairs are too complicated to understand. A Washington Post/Kaiser Foundation/Harvard University poll in late 1995, for example, found that large numbers of the public could not answer even basic questions about American government and politics (Morin 1996). The 1994 National Election Study (NES)found that 25 % of Americans strongly agreed that &dquo;sometimes politics and gov-ernment seem so complicated that a person like me can’t really understand what’s going on,&dquo; and another 40 % agreed somewhat.’ This article explores the connection between political informa-tion and people’s perceptions of their ability to understand public affairs. Are more knowledgeable citizens also more likely to believ