Political efficacy - how well citizens understand politics (internal efficacy) and impact politics (external efficacy) - is a crucial aspect of American politics. Efficacy is needed to ensure government responsiveness and accountability, a well-informed electorate, electoral competitiveness, and helpful public discourse.

Unfortunately, however, there are many threats to political efficacy, and efficacy levels are arguably at some of the lowest they have ever been. Today's episode of Politics with Paul covers the nature of political efficacy, the ways efficacy is measured, the aforementioned threats to efficacy, why efficacy is so important to the health of our political culture, and some beginning questions and steps toward improving efficacy.

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(0:00) Intro and Today's Topic

(1:35) How We Define Political Efficacy in General

(5:57) Internal Efficacy: What it Means

(8:11) Internal Efficacy: How it is Studied

(12:00) Internal Efficacy: Threats to it

(21:52) External Political Efficacy: What it Means

(22:53) External Political Efficacy: How it is Studied

(29:38) External Efficacy: Threats to it

(37:06) Why Political Efficacy is So Important

(42:27) How Do We Start Raising Political Efficacy?

(50:42) Closing and Other Ways to Connect With Me