Political Efficacy and Introductory Political Science Course: Findings from a Survey of a Large Public University

Abstract

We conducted a survey of the student population enrolled in undergraduate introductory-level courses in political science at a large public university. We were interested to test whether completing undergraduate introductory-level courses in political science had any effects on political efficacy, using some standard indicators (drawn from the ANES battery), at the individual level. Our findings suggest that earning a high grade (when controlling for various other factors) does seem to positively affect internal political efficacy at the individual level, but that the most important factor affecting external political efficacy is the number of courses completed. However, we found no evidence that completing any undergraduate introductory-level course in political science had any affect on whether students believed that they were capable of understanding politics.

Keywords: political efficacy, media consumption, learning,