Most of the electorate does not conceptualize politics as elites do.

Evidence

The distribution of the American electorate within these levels of conceptualization is summarized in Table 10.1. The array is instructive as a portrait of a mass electorate, to be laid against the common elite assumption that all or a significant majority of the public conceptualizes the main lines of politics after the manner of the most highly educated. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1897

Categorization

• XREF: Mass-elite gap echoes Converse’s ‘nature of beliefs in mass publics’ and the whole ‘theories of democracy’ debate about whether citizens are competent. — connects to: Affluent-proxy preferences understate the true gap between elites and ordinary citizens. — Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics:…, 105