CROSS-NATIONAL VARIATION IN THE POLITICAL SOPHISTICATION OF INDIVIDUALS - CAPABILITY OR CHOICE

We argue that structural and contextual factors substantially affect t he costs and benefits to individuals of becoming politically sophistic ated. If the party system, the electoral system, and legislative insti tutions of a policy affect the availability, clarity, and usefulness o f political information, they will also account for some of the cross- national variance in any individual-level measure of sophistication. T esting the Ordinary Least Squares model using cross-national survey da ta from the twelve nations of the pre-1995 European Union, we find sub stantial support for the hypothesized relationships. This support rema ins robust when we control for individual-level factors, and the model explains virtually all of the available cross-national variance.