Election 2020: Can You Answer These Civics Questions? Many voters can’t, find study

Less than a third of New Zealand voters can name the current Education Minister, according to a new study.

A report, released by the think tank New Zealand Initiative on Wednesday, revealed gaps in civic knowledge of New Zealand adults.

The study, called Democracy in the dark 1000 people were asked 13 questions about politics, nine that tested their “basic” civic knowledge, including which political parties were in Parliament in the most recent legislature and how the parties get seats, and four that tested their opinions.

It found that only 46 percent of those surveyed knew that under the MMP system, a party must win an electorate, or win 5 percent or more of the party’s votes, to be represented on the Beehive.

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The study authors, Dr. Eric Crampton and Nathan Smith, described the findings as “concerning”, in the run-up to the 2020 election.

“Being addicted to politics shouldn’t be a prerequisite for voting. But it’s hard to vote well if you don’t know the basics.

“There has been a lot of emphasis on the civic duty to vote, but very little attention to the importance of casting an informed vote,” Crampton said.

Young people appeared to be less informed about civics than older people, and the report blamed “weak” civics education in high school for the generational divide.

Louise Hutt, 27, ran for mayor of Hamilton in 2019 because she was fed up with those in power not taking action on the issues that concern her.

Defender of youth participation in democracy, said that civic education is important because it “empowers people with the knowledge to participate.”

Hutt agreed with the report’s conclusion that the NCEA curriculum was missing when it came to civics.

“I think the results are not necessarily surprising. If you look at our voter turnout, obviously there is a lack of commitment, ”she said.

However, there were different ways of measuring political commitment.

“I would wonder how important it is for a young man to know who the Minister of the Environment is.

“Some of this boils down to how relevant it is to your life. I think if we made the vote 16 years old, that in particular would give a mandate to schools to cover that information much more thoroughly, ”Hutt said.

Pauline Cleaver, Acting Under Secretary for Early Learning and Student Achievement at the Ministry of Education, said schools were encouraged to teach civic education, including New Zealand’s democratic system, the constitutional arrangement, and Te Tiriti O Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi) as part of social science programs.

New instructional resources were released in June 2020 describing how civics fits into the social science achievement goals for Years 7-13.

“The goal is to show teachers how civic and citizenship learning in the early years can be scaffolding in the later years,” Cleaver said.

The survey questions

1. Can you name all the political parties in the current New Zealand Parliament?
2. Who is the current Minister of Education?
3. Who is the current Minister of the Environment?
4. Which parties in the current New Zealand Parliament voted for the Zero Carbon Bill, which was passed in late 2019?
5. With the MMP, how can parties win a seat in Parliament?
6. Does New Zealand have a military alliance with the UK?
7. What countries make up the Five Eyes Alliance?
8. When applying the law, should New Zealand courts take into account the political intentions of the government in power?
9. Can you name the three branches of government?
10. Some people say that the best people from all parties should unite and form a permanent all-party government. Do you agree?
11. Some countries have a strong leader who does not have to worry about a Parliament or elections. Is this model a very good, good, bad or very bad model?
12. How would you feel about the idea of ​​experts, not elected politicians, making decisions based on what they think is best for the country? Would this be a very good, good, bad or very bad model?
13. Do you think that democracy is the best form of government?

Key results

• 67 percent of the participants said they were “well informed” or “very well informed” in deciding how to vote in the 2020 elections, an additional 22 percent were considered “somewhat informed”
• 69 percent were able to name all the political parties that make up the current Parliament
• 12 percent knew the three branches of government
• One in twenty knew that they could appoint the Minister of the Environment and 31% could appoint the Minister of Education
• Almost a quarter (24 percent) of those surveyed thought that experts making decisions for the country was a good or very good idea.