WASHINGTON (AFP) – US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

"It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI.

"How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American experience?" he added.

The exam questions covered American history, the workings of the US government and economics.

Among the questions asked of some 2,500 people who were randomly selected to take the test, including "self-identified elected officials," was one which asked respondents to "name two countries that were our enemies during World War II."

Sixty-nine percent of respondents correctly identified Germany and Japan. Among the incorrect answers were Britain, China, Russia, Canada, Mexico and Spain.

Forty percent of respondents, meanwhile, incorrectly believed that the US president has the power to declare war, while 54 percent correctly answered that that power rests with Congress.

Asked about the electoral college, 20 percent of elected officials incorrectly said it was established to "supervise the first televised presidential debates."

In fact, the system of choosing the US president via an indirect electoral college vote dates back some 220 years, to the US Constitution.

The question that received the fewest correct responses, just 16 percent, tested respondents' basic understanding of economic principles, asking why "free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government's centralized planning?"

Activities that dull Americans' civic knowledge include talking on the phone and watching movies or television -- even news shows and documentaries, ISI said.

Meanwhile, civic knowledge is enhanced by discussing public affairs, taking part in civic activities and reading about current events and history, the group said.

This really shouldn't come as a surprise though. -_-

Well, it's easy to see how Americans can be confused about the President's (in)ability to declare war, given the strong-arming done under the Bush Doctrine.

And it's not the bombardment of media that causes unintelligence -- it's the de-emphasis of being intelligent, when everything is instant access, so no one bothers to learn anything and remember it. It's not a stretch to see the Orwellian dystopia of 1984 coming to pass, considering the seemingly five-second-long memories of the body politic.

This is definitely not a surprise.

Now, I'm by no means smart when it comes to history (Read: I have a Bachelor's in English), but who the FUCK could possibly think Canada was an enemy in WWII? And who the hell thinks the 'electoral college' is a group of people that supervise televised debates? How does any of that even make sense? *facepalm* x100

Americans in general fail at things to do with our history or even passing a citizenship test...a majority (85% or more) would definitely not be citizens if we weren't born in this country.

Considering that 75 percent of today's Federal government is unconstitutional, this doesn't surprise me.

I took that test and got just one incorrect, and a whole week later I'm still irritated over it. However, I had a discussion about this somewhere saying that the statistics made the results sound worse than it actually is. And also that it's incredibly biased towards capitalism and the free market, but since it's an American test, I was expecting it and answered accordingly. I could dig it up somewhere but I'm lazy. lol.