Democracy is an essential tool in the political aspects of a country. Democratic practices in a country are largely dictated by the levels of political knowledge and the ideological thinking and constraints among many other factors. The various research outcomes in the United States have found that the levels of political knowledge and understanding among the Americans are very low.

The paper will lengthily discuss the impacts of low political knowledge on the democratic practices in USA. Further on, the paper will evaluate the influence of ideological constraints on the function of democracy. Additionally, the paper will explore the impact of ideological thinking on the democratic practices in the US. The above discussions will be embedded on the political intrigues of Phil Converse and John Zaller

Ideological Constraint and Democracy

Ideological constraint entails a scenario whereby the followers of a political party areunable to understand the political ideology of their party (Ansolabehere et al. 217). Democracy refers to the rule of the people through their representatives.Philip Converse in his works claims that the most of the voters do not understand the ideology of the political parties they voted. For example, people tend to support a party because of its agenda in increasing federal revenue but may end up complaining about the increase in taxation levels(Sabin). Despite such scenarios, the ideological constraint will have no influence on the practice and implementation of the democratic principles. This argument can be supported by various claims. For instance,the voter understanding of the ideology will not affect various democratic issues in the country. This is because the elected representative will push for the implementation of his political party and not the voter who voted for him or her. Another example of the claim is ascertained by the fact that the ideological concerns of the party that is in power will be implemented automatically with minimal objection thereby making the ideological constraint .

Ideological Thinking and Democracy

Zaller claims that communication is a terminer of the public opinion and views in the political context. The various attributes of the voter are essential in upholding preference to particular political ideologies. As such, ideological thinking ied by public communication. The low political knowledge of the voters is attributed to low levels of ideological thinking.Ideological thinking does not affect the functioning of the democracy. The claim is cam be supported by the fact that voter opinions and thinking on the political ideology has no impact on the overall function of democracy. Ideological thinking is can be achieved by practicing political socialization activities (Janda et al. 135). Such experiences have no influence on the function of the democracy because the political party in office is obliged to implement its manifesto. In such a scenario, the experiences gained will only improve the ideological thinking of the individual but not the democratic practices.

Conclusion

Ideological Constraint, ideological thinking, and low political knowledge have profound impacts on the political swing of a country. Despite their influence on the voters and their voting decisions, the three aspects have no effect on the democratic functions in a country.Political knowledge and ideological are voter based aspects, but the implementation of the democratic principles is initiated by the elected people. Ideological Constraint does not influence democracy since its implementation is dictated by the relevant arms of the government.

Works Cited

Sabin, B. “Review of Philip Converse’s The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics.” Welcome to Bruce Sabin’s Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 June 2015.

Ansolabehere, Stephen, Jonathan Rodden, and James M. Snyder. “The strength of issues: Using multiple measures to gauge preference stability, ideological constraint, and issue voting.” American Political Science Review 102.02 (2008): 215-232.

Janda, Kenneth, et al. The challenge of democracy: American Government in global politics. Cengage Learning, 2015.