Election 2020: a third of voters do not know who is in Parliament and half do not understand the MMP

General elections are just around the corner, but many New Zealanders understand very little about the basics of who they are voting for and how they can get elected.

A third of New Zealanders do not know which political parties are in Parliament, and less than half know how a party can come to power with the MMP, a new report shows.

Somehow, that knowledge gap may seem like it doesn’t matter. Despite a relatively poor understanding of civics and politics, the report says New Zealand is doing well on almost all international indicators and studies.

But this lack of basic knowledge does matter, says the report released by the New Zealand Initiative.

“Being addicted to politics shouldn’t be a prerequisite for voting,” said the organization’s chief economist, Eric Crampton.

“But it is difficult to vote well if you do not know the basics. Much emphasis has been placed on the civic duty to vote, but very little attention to the importance of casting an informed vote,” he said.

If a voter didn’t know which parties were in Parliament, it was hard to reward or punish them for good or bad results, Crampton said.

“Suppose you look out the window and really like how things have turned out here. Do you give Labor credit for that? Or do you give credit to your coalition partners?”

That also applies to various levels of government, which was one of the least understood topics in the survey.

“Voters tend to take a hammer on the whole system and blame everything for it, which means no one is to blame,” Crampton said.

The relatively poor understanding of politics and civics in New Zealand could be partly attributed to its not being a dedicated subject in schools.

However, experience abroad had found that compulsory classes were not enough. Political knowledge in the United States was also relatively poor despite decades of dedicated instruction.

The New Zealand Initiative said it had no “magic bullets” to improve civic awareness in New Zealand, but came up with some ideas.

Reinforced civics instruction could be introduced in some schools and students could be tested two years later to see if their knowledge had improved. Schools would also have to check whether that extra teaching came at the expense of other important subjects.

There were also some “quirky” suggestions in the report. Basic civics questions and answers could be printed in the daily newspapers, and the Election Commission could randomly call voters and reward them with a $ 10,000 prize for doing well.

There could also be a $ 100 prize at the ballot box for people who successfully complete a civics questionnaire.

“Getting some corrections on the basics before people go to cast the main vote, that could be helpful,” Crampton said.

The proposal to improve civic education raises questions about how a more educated population might vote. A study in the US found that knowing more about the political system did not change people’s personal political views. Therefore, it would probably not favor any particular party.

The New Zealand Election Survey found that Green Party voters seemed to know more about the political system. That was because there was a link between people with higher education levels and civic knowledge, and the Greens disproportionately won voters at higher education levels.

The New Zealand Initiative’s findings were based on a survey of 1,000 New Zealanders and supplemented by the New Zealand Election Survey.