In l976 Dane County, Wisconsin was the site of a survey to determine the knowledge of rural youth and adults as to how their government functioned. The area was chosen because its residents were thought to be more politically active than individuals in other parts of the state. Personal or telephone interviews were conducted with 112 adults and questionnaires were administered to 292 members of the junior class at a rural high school. The questions concerned which offices had the most authority at the federal, state and local levels of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. At both the state and national levels, political knowledge was much lower for youth than for the adults, and the lowest levels of political knowledge were of the executive and legislative branches of government. The youth did surpass adults in knowledge of the judicial branch. However, the knowledge of the authority structure of the different branches of government was alarmingly low, especially at the national and state levels. If the findings of this survey are indicative of the broader high school population, there is need for concern among educators; it is difficult to understand how youth can make the choices necessary to continue our representative system of government with such limited knowledge of how it functions. (Author/DS)