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The elitist theory turned the supposed limitations of the public into a strength of democracy.
It held that politics might prove unworkable if ever person were active on every issue at all times.
With that being said, Dalton criticized the democratic elitist theory for overlooking the
complexities of the democratic process and takes an unsophisticated view of the evidence such as
ignoring the inconsistencies that exists among political elites (i.e., endorsing strict measures to
control crime, but in the next one they refuse to ban assault weapons). These inconsistencies in the
elite behavior are treated as examples of the complexity of politics, but if the same inconsistencies
were to exist in the public it would be considered as signs of limited sophistication. Furthermore,
the elitist democratic theory lacks faith in the common man due to the elitism of researchers that
Dalton provides three main explanations for political sophistication. Choose one, describe
his claim and evidence, and assess the persuasiveness of his argument.
Political sophistication concerns the extent to which a person has knowledge of political
activity, assimilates information, and forms political views. Part of the three main explanations of
political sophistication according to Dalton is cognitive mobilization which tackles on how citizens
used to have limited access to information in the past while, now in the modern times, a vast supply
and variety of political news are readily accessible to everyone. A huge contributor to cognitive
mobilization is the expansion of mass media, such as television. Before, television used to be
considered a luxury, but now almost everyone owns and has television subscription and due to this
there has been an increase in television programs. Today, news reporting is instantaneous and done
on a worldwide scale. In addition to news from the television, many people still read newspapers
and magazines, hear news on the radio, use the internet, and learn politics from their friends. This
expansion of information sources paralleled the public’s greater ability to process political
information. Gone are the days when news are a week late or when information is exclusive to a
certain group of people. Now more people have the resources and skills necessary to deal with the
complexities of politics and to reach their own political decisions. Even more so because of this
cognitive mobilization a common man can evaluate and decide whether the economy is improving
or note improvements in education and health standards. Hence, if they see good results they are
bound to support the incumbents and because of cognitive mobilization the political participation
and perception of a common man is a lot better because they are generally better educated and