| Abstract [eng] |
This helped to rank respondents to four groups: politically unsophisticates (24 %), low politically sophisticates (29.7 %), mediate political sophisticates (34.7%) and high political sophisticates (11.6 %). This measurement differentiates the respondents well. The other aspect of political sophistication analyzed in this article is factors that influence level of political sophistication. It can be effected by structural factors such as party or electoral system. Importance of individual level resources or abilities that individual can use and that can influence his political sophistication. Attention is paid to several individual-level factors such as person’s education, income, usage of informational media resources, discussions with the other people, gender and age. Three hypotheses were tested and relatively proved using data from Representative Lithuanian Citizens’ Survey 2008. Individuals that discuss political issues with the others, use more information resources and have higher education tend to be more politically sophisticated. However, socioeconomic variables such as age, gender and income also have impact on one’s level of political sophistication. The regression analysis showed that the factor that has most influence on political sophistication is age. Discussions with other people about politics, education, usage of information resources and income have less impact. Thus even this empirical research is limited, several tendencies could be seen. Improving measurement tools and examining the effect of citizens’ political sophistications effect on their political behavior could be future research topics. |
