Introduction

Google improves the quality of civic competence in theoretically expected and empirically validated ways in direct democracy. Concern about levels of political knowledge and the degree to which the public can make good decisions is constant in American politics. Minimal effects posited that media have little effects over the choices and attitudes of citizens because they rely mainly on attitudinally congruent information and partisan identification for their choices. This theory mainly applies to attitude change, but it also specified expectations for political knowledge. As awareness about ballot measures increases, scholars point out that—as with general political knowledge—voters use heuristics and other cognitive shortcuts to decrease the costs of learning about this relatively opaque area of politics. Internet searches may possibly facilitate the civic competence needed for direct democracy by providing easy access to valuable information and heuristics. Finally, this chapter presents an overview of this book.