Americans who correctly identify that Republicans control both the House and Senate blame Republicans and Trump for the shutdown by a 49%–34% margin. Among people who are wrong or unsure about which party controls Congress, blame is split nearly evenly (22% vs. 21%). Knowledge of who holds power appears to determine who gets held accountable.
— It shows how basic political knowledge can change accountability attributions, implying misinformation or uncertainty dilutes democratic responsibility signals during crises.
Nate Silver
2026.01.14
57% relevant
The Silver Bulletin provides the empirical infrastructure (pollster quality, bias measures, sample counts) necessary to interpret public‑opinion results that drive accountability insights like who gets blamed in a shutdown; better weighting of pollster reliability reduces misinformation about who the public 'actually' blames.
Carroll Doherty
2026.01.06
60% relevant
The Argument argues voters disagree on what defending democracy entails—a parallel to the cited idea that political knowledge changes who is blamed for institutional failures; both show that citizens' factual and interpretive frameworks (what counts as a democratic threat) shape political accountability and behavior.
2025.12.30
90% relevant
The poll documents how revealing policy details (e.g., elements of Trump’s Ukraine peace plan) measurably changes public reactions and confidence in leadership—direct empirical evidence that information exposure and knowledge reshape attribution and political support, the core claim of the existing idea.
2025.12.30
75% relevant
Both pieces show how public opinion about governance actors maps onto accountability and blame: the YouGov/Economist poll documents where favorability and approval sit (e.g., net favorability, leader approvals), which is the same empirical terrain the existing idea uses to argue that knowledge and perceptions change who voters hold responsible for political outcomes.
2025.12.02
78% relevant
Both pieces show how public opinion about political responsibility depends on accessible facts: the YouGov poll quantifies current approval and how policy disclosures (Ukraine plan, illegal‑orders dispute) change who the public blames or sides with, echoing the existing idea that basic civic knowledge and salient events reassign accountability in big political fights.
2025.12.02
86% relevant
Both pieces show that basic knowledge about government actions changes who the public holds accountable: the YouGov experiment finds showing parts of Trump’s Ukraine plan reduces his net approval on the war, mirroring the existing idea that voters’ factual understanding alters blame and accountability judgments.
2025.12.02
60% relevant
Both pieces show how public sentiment and knowledge shape political accountability; this YouGov/Economist poll documents rising economic pessimism (41% say economy 'poor', 41% worse off year‑over‑year) that will affect who voters blame in 2026 and which policies gain traction—closely related to the prior idea that civic knowledge alters attributions in crises.
2025.12.02
52% relevant
Both pieces hinge on a simple mechanism: public factual knowledge changes how citizens interpret public matters. The YouGov survey shows gaps in literary/historical knowledge that, like the shutdown study, imply that baseline civic and cultural knowledge shapes public discourse and accountability (here, the public’s grasp of historical context and narratives).
2025.10.07
100% relevant
The poll’s cross‑tab: blame GOP/Trump 49% vs. Democrats 34% among respondents who know the GOP controls both chambers; 22% vs. 21% among those who don’t.