Ignorance of basic political facts is a disease which is spreading and has been for some time.
In NZ there is no standard civics course in high schools as in the States and social studies seems to concentrate on non-political issues. Most New Zealanders leave school appallingly ignorant of the political process which runs their country.
When I was teaching business studies as part of a computing course in a polytechnic way back when, I took the first two lectures and devoted them to teaching my students, mostly high school dropouts in their 20s, 30s and 40s, how governments work in general, how the New Zealand government works in particular and contrasting that with the US governmental system. When I taught them about the Westminster system, I was more than once accused of making it all up ...
Believe me, though, that was nothing in comparison with the disbelief that met my attempts to teach them about the double-entry bookkeeping system and how THAT came about!
I think there is a place for a compulsory civics course in every school in every country. I think that disinterest in the process in today's adults is a product of their ignorance of it. And of course they will pass this disinterest on to their progeny.
