Does political knowledge erode party attachments?: A review of the cognitive mobilization thesis

This article re-examines one of the most prominent theories explaining partisan dealignment in the advanced democracies: cognitive mobilization. Utilizing a diverse collection of cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a variety of countries, it is shown that measures of cognitive skills and access to mass media consistently predict an increase in the probability that a citizen will express an attachment to a party. What is more, this positive relationship is not diminishing over time. The essay concludes with a summary of key questions that remain about the relationship between political knowledge and party identification. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.