Knowledge, Literacy, and Power

Abstract

Studies based on two random-digit-dial samples (N = 538 and N = 632) of adults in San Diego suggest that higher levels of declarative knowledge about “mainstream” culture and politics in the United States are associated with achieving and exercising power regardless of cultural background. Statistical relationships were examined among general mainstream societal knowledge, domain-specific political knowledge, the amount of reading reported, indicators of power (including occupational status, income, voting, communicating about politics), and requisites of power (including perceptions of powerlessness, political efficacy, and political interest). Extraneous cognitive-processing variance was controlled by using simple checklists of declarative knowledge. Although causality cannot be proven, the results suggest that a person's content knowledge is related to reading and power, even when age, education, gender, ethnicity, and measures of literacy practice are controlled. Thus, knowledge is associated with power regardless of most barriers that citizens otherwise face.