Midterm 2 Flashcards
Regime
- A formal/informal set of institutional
arrangements that determine who has power,
how those who are in power are chosen, and
who can hold them accountable.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Activities with the intention to affect, directly or indirectly, government action.
Examples of political participation
❏ Voting in elections
❏ Participating in protests
❏ Signing petitions
❏ Contacting office holders
❏ Volunteering for political campaigns
Through participation in politics, citizens can:
❏ express their preferences about who should govern
❏ hold governing authorities accountable for their actions
❏ let their views and grievances known to fellow citizens and governing authorities
❏ put pressure on those in power
Individual-level factors of elections:
❏ Very minor differences between men and women
❏ Propensity to vote increases with age, education, and income
❏ Political efficacy, interest in politics, and perceptions of civic duty also positively affect turnout
❏ Partisanship is also a major determinant of voting
Contextual factors in elections
❏ Compulsory voting laws lead to higher turnout
❏ Legal procedures for voting (e.g., non-automatic voter registration) and in-person voting requirements depress turnout
❏ The closer the electoral context, the higher the turnout
❏ Turnout is higher in countries with proportional representation
Three main theoretical
approaches to explain electoral
participation
❏ Social-psychological
approach
❏ Rational choice framework
❏ Mobilization theories
SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH
❏ Focuses on individuals’ psychological and attitudinal
traits
❏ Some people are more likely to participate because “they
want to”
❏ Socialization and experience in family, schooling, and work
-> higher levels of personal efficacy, interest in politics,
and sense of civic duty to vote
SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH:
PREDICTIONS
❏ Education -> enhanced political interest and stronger
sense of civic duty to vote
❏ Higher socio-economic status -> high sense of personal
efficacy
❏ Middle-aged individuals more likely to take social and
economic responsibilities than the young -> more interest
in politics
❏ Partisan attachments develop largely through family
socialization
RATIONAL CHOICE FRAMEWORK
❏ Rational individuals will participate in elections when
benefits of doing so outweigh any costs associated with
voting
❏ Benefit of electoral participation: Contribution to one’s
preferred candidate/party winning over others and taking
office
❏ Material costs: Money and time spent for registration,
going to polls, following the campaigns
❏ Cognitive effort: Figuring out the views of the
candidates/parties and evaluating them
RATIONAL CHOICE FRAMEWORK:
PREDICTIONS
❏ Higher levels of education and income -> more resources to afford costs of participation
❏ Higher level of education -> easier to follow and make sense of campaigns
❏ Younger adults are more mobile -> more cumbersome procedures to register and vote
❏ In general, turnout tends to be higher when the efforts of voting are low and the perceived benefits high
POLITICAL MOBILIZATION
❏ Mobilization: the process by which candidates, parties,
activists, and groups induce other people to participate
❏ Door-to-door canvassing, mail solicitations, campaign ads,
personal requests by friends, neighbors, colleagues, etc
MOBILIZATION THEORIES
-Lowering the costs of voting:
-Increasing the (perceived) benefits of voting:
-Individuals who are easy to reach by candidates/parties -> more likely to be targets of mobilization efforts -> more likely to turn out to vote
-Individuals who are most likely to respond to mobilization efforts ->
more likely to be targets -> more likely to turn out to vote
PARADOX OF PARTICIPATION
R = p*B - c
R = Net rewards of voting for an individual
p = the probability of an individual’s vote being pivotal
(changing the outcome of the election)
c = the costs of associated with voting
SHORTCOMINGS OF PREVAILING THEORIESpoli participation
❏ Social-psychological approach is less useful to explain variation in participation within social groups or across
different elections
❏ Rational choice approach: Rising costs of participation should always be followed by decreased participation, but that’s not the case
❏ Mobilization efforts have relatively limited effects on
turnout
COSTLY ABSTENTION IN PROTEST
PARTICIPATION (4)
❏ positively related to how much they care about the
protests’ potential outcomes,
❏ positively related to the size of protests - only for people
who care about the protests’ goals
❏ Repression can also drive up the costs of abstention - only
for people who care about the protests’ goals
❏ Relationship between repression and protest is non-linear
can Digital technologies lower the costs of participation and increase costs of abstention?
yes
How do digital technologies increase protest turnout
❏ Easier to organize and coordinate protests
❏ Mobilizing bystanders to protests
WHERE DOES CIVIL SOCIETY COME
FROM?
- Modernization theory: civil society is a product of industrialization
- Cultural theory: civil society is a product of liberalism
- Institutional theories: civil society is the product of the political rules of the game (laws,
regulations)
CIVIL SOCIETY DEFINITION
Civil society is a realm of organized citizen activity that is autonomous (i.e. independent) of the state
- Anything from choirs to unions to charities
Why is civil society important?
Local organizations can contribute to social and economic development
Strong multi-ethnic associations can reduce/prevent ethnic conflict
Can promote democracy by providing organizational muscle behind democratic movements, which constrain or keep state office holders accountable and by fostering democratic values
Where does Civil society come from according to putnam
Putnam’s answer: strong civil society is a product of history, not of liberalism or of industrialization.
Tradition of civic community in Northern Italy since 12th century
History of authoritarian rule in Southern Italy wiped out all traces of civic community
Once on a path, continuity in a path-dependent way
CRITIQUES OF PUTNAM’S MODEL
- Sweeping path dependent claim
- He makes a bottom-up argument–state institutions are shaped by civil society. But what if it is the other way around?
- Is social capital and strong civil society always a good thing?
BERMAN ON DANGEROUS CIVIL
SOCIETY
In the absence of strong and responsive national government and political parties, strong civil society can facilitate anti democratic actions.
Illustrative example of Weimar Germany
Gender
is a socially constructed system that creates hierarchies associated with masculine and feminine characteristics.
Feminism
refers to a political project that aims to dismantle patriarchy and oppression in all forms
Patriarchy
is a sociopolitical and cultural system which privileges masculinities over femininities
Intersectionality
refers to the ways in which gender intersects with other forms of difference — race, class, ability, religion, caste, age, etc. — to create advantage or disadvantage in different social systems.
