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Some priority variables in comparative electoral research
... People do have lives outside politics and certain other activities take precedence over voting. Instead, voters have a special set of issues that they find most important and make their judgments based on these issues rather than every possible issue within society (Converse 1974;). Yet, the research has also shown that individuals quite often rely on cognitive short cuts, cues, and heuristics such as group identities to make their decisions (Richard R. . ...
... People do have lives outside politics and certain other activities take precedence over voting. Instead, voters have a special set of issues that they find most important and make their judgments based on these issues rather than every possible issue within society (Converse 1974;). Yet, the research has also shown that individuals quite often rely on cognitive short cuts, cues and heuristics such as groups identities to make their decisions (Richard R. . ...
... The literature analyzing the development of the social cleavages differentiate between the ethnocultural and socio-economic cleavages. The finding presented here support the overall conclusion of the broader literature suggesting that the ethno-cultural cleavages seem to be more prominent then socio-economic cleavages (Converse 1974;Lijphart 1971Lijphart , 1979 as the finding of Chapter 2 vividly illustrated. ...
The “normalization” of politics in new democracies is an important concern of political science research. Normalization could refer to democratic consolidation when democracy “becomes the only game in town” (Linz and Stepan 1996). Some of the factors contributing to normalization are stable institutions, the rule of law, and transparency in power transfer, among others. Yet, it can be argued that the democratic process is normalized when programmatic parties compete for political office by wooing a sophisticated and knowledgeable electorate (Kitschelt 1992, 1995, 2000). This inquiry is a story of such normalization in the case of a new post-communist democracy – Ukraine. In the literature the Ukrainian public is depicted as highly apolitical, unsophisticated, and divided along the ethno-cultural regional cleavage which contributes to the problems of normalization of electoral competition. Moreover, there is a general sense that voters are “the least likely segment of Ukrainian polity" to influence political processes (Copsey 2005). Yet, the events of the Orange Revolutions showed otherwise. It does not seem reasonable any longer to ignore the Ukrainian voter and her role in the development of a democratic Ukraine. Recently Timothy J. Colton (2011) lamented the lack of the individual level analysis of Ukrainian electorate. This study is a decisive attempt to remedy this oversight. Using the survey data from International Foundation for Electoral Studies (IFES) from 1994, 1997 -2008 I develop and analyze a model of the sophisticated voter in the new democracy. I argue that over time, as voters have more experience with democratic processes, they learn how to properly link their own preferences with appropriate parties and candidates, relying on numerous factors including, but not limited to, the ethno-cultural and socioeconomic attributes, such factors as evaluation of the political leaders and issues are also instrumental in voter decision making. The results of this study have important implications for the study of Ukrainian politics and a broader literature on voting behavior. The curious case of the Ukrainian voter suggests a need to reexamine the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of democratic consolidation hypotheses as well as the developmental modes of electoral behavior.
... This study argues that ethnic interests and retrospective programmatic interests are significant factors in this regard. Rose and Unwin (1969), Converse (1974), Rose (1974), Lijphart (1979), and Powell (1982) have stated that religion is assuming a huge role in deciding the political behavior of an individual. Brooks, Clem, and Jeff Manza (1997) Lijphart, A. (1979) investigated the general impact of the three conceivably most significant factors on voting behavior-social class, religion, and language-an examination of Belgium, Canada, South Africa, and Switzerland gives a "pivotal investigation". ...
... Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews eISSN: 2395-6518, Vol 9, No 2, 2021, pp [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2021.922 ...
Purpose: This study investigates the influence of religion on the voting behavior of the electorates of district Buner of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the 2013 general elections. The study empirically reveals the inclination of the people while considering religion as a determinant of voting behavior. Methodology: Data for this work has been collected through a personally administered structured questionnaire. A sample representative size of 385 respondents was selected through a multi-stage-sample-method in a survey. SPSS (Statistical package for social sciences) version 21 has been used for the determination of P-value through the Chi-Square test. Results: This investigation contended that voters consider religion as a significant determinant of voting behavior. They also support the participation of Ulama (religious scholars) in politics. Further, the study discovered that the majority of the electorates do not keep the religious affairs of the candidate in mind while making their choices. On polling day, the role of religion does not significantly affect the preferences of the people. Applications: Results of the study shows that religion and voting behavior are interrelated. While analyzing electoral politics and voting choices, it is pertinent to consider the religion of the electorates. Novelty/Originality: Electorates favor the role of religion in politics, but on polling day, majority voters do not care about religion.
... Brooks, Clem, and Jeff Manza (1997) dissected the connection between religion and voting in presidential elections in America. Rose and Unwin (1969, Converse (1974, Rose (1974, Lijphart 1979, and Powell (1982 have stated that religion is assuming a huge role in deciding the political behavior of an individual. (Fox, 2001) and (Philpott,2002) have concluded in the wake of examining the September 11, 2001 assaults in the United States that religion still plays an important role in politics and society. ...
Purpose: This study seeks to evaluate voting behavior and identifying job provision as a voting determinant in District Buner of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, with reference to 2013 election. The study empirically reveals the inclination of the people while considering job provision as a determinant of voting behavior. Methodology: Data for this work has been collected through a personally administered structured questionnaire. A sample representative size of 385 respondents was selected through a multi-stage-sample-method in a survey. SPSS (Statistical package for social sciences) version 21 has been used for the determination of P-value through the Chi-Square test. Results: This investigation contended that voters consider job provision as a significant determinant of voting. The evidence also suggests that Job provision play a key role in shaping voting behavior pplications: Results of the study shows that the provision of job and voting behavior are interrelated. While analyzing electoral politics and voting choices, it is pertinent to consider the provision of job. Novelty/Originality: Electorates favor and acknowledge the role of job provision as key determinant of vote casting.
... Apropos, to sustain a healthy and flourishing democracy, citizens must know about political happenings and actively create, communicate and participate in a political community. Otherwise, there will be the risk of low voter turn-out (Casper & Bass, 1998;Waldman, 2001), and citizen who vote will be mostly uninformed when they approach polls (Converse, 1974;Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1991), resulting in the wrong selection of candidates in elections. Therefore, it is pertinent to come to the true significance of TV talk shows and their impact on the citizens to predict the prospect of democracy in Pakistan. ...
The present research explores the political content of TV talk shows under the theoretical frameworks of framing and cultivation analysis. The content analysis of systematically selected 100 programs of five top rated serious and five comedy talk shows broadcast on Pakistani TV Channels during October-December 2019 were analyzed to detect the tropes of political engagement and political skepticism. The research established that days of the week, duration of the program, and the program's genre influenced the tropes of programs. There search concludes that serious talk shows contributed to political engagement, whereas comedy talk shows created more politically skeptical tropes.
... which shows an association between education of the respondents and vote to religious political parties. Rose and Unwin, (1969), Converse (1974), Rose (1974), Lijphart (1979), Powell (1982) and Mann (1995) have pointed out that religion is playing a significant role in determining political attitudes and preferences of a person. Manza and Brooks (1997) are of the opinion that religion has significant impacts on how the voter looks at a specific social and economic issue. ...
Religion is an important element in determining voting preferences in Pakhtun society. It is playing a key role in making socio-political attitudes of the people. The findings of the study show that religious political parties’ political rhetoric successfully attracts a significant number of voters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This rhetoric includes implementation of Sharia System/Islamic system of governance; Religious political parties as the defender of Islam; secular political parties as agents of Jews and Christians (Yahood-o-Nasara kay Aala-i-Kaar) and voting for religious political parties as the sacred duty of all the Muslims. A multi-stage probability sampling technique is use for data collection. The Chi-square test is used for data analysis.
... Ženy obecně disponují nižší úrovní politické znalosti než muži (Mondak a Anderson 2004). Mezi dosaženým vzděláním a politickou znalostí existuje pozitivní závislost, kdy lidé s vyšším vzděláním mají větší znalost politiky než lidé s nižším vzděláním (Converse 1964(Converse , 1974Grönlund a Milner 2006). Nakonec mezi zájmem o politiku a politickou znalostí existuje pozitivní závislost (Zaller 1992;Delli Carpini a Keeter 1996). ...
... More specifi cally, religion and various measures of religiosity are traditionally key variables for explaining political involvement and participation. In this context, starting from the classical work by Lazarsfeld et al. ( 1948 ), religion has often been found to be a strong predictor of political behavior, in particular voting behavior (Broughton and Ten Napel 2000 ;Converse 1974 ;Tresch and Nicolet 2010 ). During the past decades, however, a number of scholars have observed a diminishing impact of religion on politics ( Dalton et al. 1984 ;Franklin 1992 ;Norris and Inglehart 2004 ) as well as a transformation of the forms of religiosity in the western world (Hervieu-Léger 1999 ;Luckmann 1967 ;Pollack and Pickel 2007 ). ...
This chapter looks at the impact of religion on the political participation of Muslims in Switzerland. We distinguish between two dimensions of the potential impact of religion on participation: an individual dimension concerning individual religiosity and a collective dimension pertaining to collective religious embeddedness. Our analysis shows that the collective dimension matters, while the individual dimension has no effect. We then speculate on the connections between the collective dimension of religion and political participation by drawing from three theoretical perspectives that have stressed the role of voluntary associations for political engagement: the civic voluntarism, the social capital, and the group consciousness perspectives. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. All rights are reserved.
... In almost every society, party divisions correlate with social characteristics (Alford, 1963;LaPalombara and Weiner, 1966;Bartolini and Mair, 1990;Benson, 1961;Rokkan, 1970;Lipset, 1960Lipset, , 1970Lipset and Rokkan, 1967;Rose, 1974;Rose andUrwin, 1969, 1970;Converse, 1974;Lijphart, 1977Lijphart, , 1979Lijphart, , 1989Hays, 1975;Kelley, 1979;Maguire, 1983;Powell, 1984;Ware, 1996). The key to this connection between groups and parties is the influence of social characteristics and their associated structures on the perceptions, beliefs, and interests of citizens. ...
The party coalitions that emerged from the New Deal realignment were defined by race, nationality and ethnicity, religion, region, and social class. The issue de-bates between the parties reflected these social differences between their support-ers. During the last twenty years, and especially the last decade, the "religious im-pulse" has become an important aspect of the party coalitions as Republican and Democratic identifiers have become increasingly distinct in terms of their religi-osity and religious practice. The paper traces the increasing importance of religi-osity and social class as correlates of party identification and argues that the con-temporary GOP has a support base that is highly similar to that of conventional Christian Democratic parties. The analysis links issues related to their social bases to the 2004 presidential vote. Because the social group base of a party is durable, and unlikely to change easily or much, the issue conflicts of 2004 are more likely than not to be the focus of subsequent elections.
... Existing research tends to emphasize the resource and mobilization aspects of religion and considers religion as a classic predictor of political engagement. Theories of electoral behavior based on social cleavages suggest that political parties mobilize voters along religious lines (Lipset and Rokkan, 1967;Miller and Shanks, 1996;Converse, 1974;Lijphart, 1979). Disagreements over moral issues, doctrinal conflicts among different denominations, and introduction of compulsory secular education in the aftermath of the French Revolution gave rise to important Christian Democratic parties that sought to defend religious values and the moral authority of religious institutions in western democracies. ...
... Demographic and socioeconomic variables (age, race, gender, marital status, presence of children, income, education, and social class) are useful to identify the specific characteristics of those participating (or not participating) in various civic and political activities (Almond and Verba, 1963;Booth, 1994;Brooks and Brady, 1999;Cohen and Dawson, 1993;Converse, 1974;Ganguly and Ganguly, 1975;Nie and Verba, 1975;Oppenhuis, 1995;Powell, 1986;Schoultz, 1994;Topf, 1995). A complete list of variables used in this analysis is provided in the Appendix with definitions and the relevant coding schemes. ...
Researchers generally accept the thesis that strong relationships exist between civic engagement and political participation. However, the specific nature and magnitude of the relationships are yet to be ascertained empirically. Operationalizing political participation in terms of electoral and other forms of participation, this article uncovers a large degree of political and civic inequality across different demographic and socioeconomic groups in Kathmandu. Findings suggest that civic engagement encourages participation in other political activities, which in turn contributes to electoral participation. The identification of the specific characteristics of political and civic participants provides important policy implications for maximizing electoral participation.
... Existing research tends to emphasize the resource and mobilization aspects of religion and considers religion as a classic predictor of political engagement. Theories of electoral behavior based on social cleavages suggest that political parties mobilize voters along religious lines (Lipset and Rokkan, 1967;Miller and Shanks, 1996;Converse, 1974;Lijphart, 1979). Disagreements over moral issues, doctrinal conflicts among different denominations, and introduction of compulsory secular education in the aftermath of the French Revolution gave rise to important Christian Democratic parties that sought to defend religious values and the moral authority of religious institutions in western democracies. ...
Abstract will be provided by author.
This study tries to find out whether personality of a candidate affects the voters’ preferences in elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or not? It is believed that like other socio-political and economic preferences, candidate’s personality is also an important determinant of voting behaviour in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This paper is an attempt to identify different indicators (Personal Influence, Socio-economic and Political Status in society) of personality vote in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The study is based on empirical data collected from North, Centre and Southern geographical regions of the province through a multi-stage sampling technique. Chi-square test is used for the data analysis.
The American political landscape is replete with the perceived incompatibility between our political ideals and religious beliefs. In the U.S. Constitution, the First Amendment exemplifies this very contradiction even within its religious clauses. Of all the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, only religion has spelled-out dual and frequently contradictory rights-the establishment clause and the free exercise clause. The state cannot favor any particular religion over any other; and as it is frequently interpreted in contemporary jurisprudence, it cannot favor any religion at all. Simultaneously, the state cannot act in any way to prevent an individual's exercise of his or her religious belief. The first clause requires the state to be neutral in all religious matters-in a sense, putting the state above religion. The second clause requires the state to recognize the supremacy of religious practices over the everyday concerns of the state. Recently, France passed a law banning all exterior expressions of religious beliefs in public schools, deeming this necessary for upholding the secular nature of the French political state. In the United States, this fulfills the first clause (the establishment clause), but is antithetical to the second clause (the free exercise clause). Americans would recognize that secularization is a positive act and abridges an inherent right.
Dieser Forschungsansatz dominiert seit den 50er Jahren bereits in der amerikanischen Politikwissenschaft, konnte sich allerdings in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland erst später und nicht in gleicher Intensität durchsetzen.
My dissertation asks how influential is Islam for political participation in Indonesia. I examine the varied ways in which Islam presents itself in contemporary Indonesian politics, particularly at the level of the masses, and the conditions under which Muslim Indonesians engage in political participation. I use a mixed-methods research design involving focus group interviews, personal in-depth interviews, historical-archival work, participant observation, and national public opinion surveys to trace the presence and absence of ???religious stimuli??? for political behavior.
My work reveals a difference between ???religious political participation??? and political participation by religious actors. While religion is important for Muslims, it usually does not directly or regularly influence the majority of Indonesians to take political action. Much depends on different components of religion and individual and social contexts. There is an active minority for whom Islam is relevant, and for this group of occasional or habitual participants, the presence and salience of "religiously-relevant political issues" and "religious resources" (often meaning associations and social networks) significantly affect different types and frequencies of political participation.
The were a time of religious change throughout the Western world. But historians disagree fundamentally as to the central thrust of these changes. Was it, for example, a time of (Ellwood), or the in which Humanism became the dominant world-view (Brown)? This raises further questions. Is there indeed one to tell about the Sixties, or should we think of a complex interweaving of a series of sometimes contradictory ? And is the European story different from the American?.
For the purpose of determining the relative influence of the three potentially most important social and demographic factors on party choice--social class, religion, and language--a comparison of Belgium, Canada, South Africa, and Switzerland provides a "crucial experiment," because these three variables are simultaneously present in all four countries. Building on the major earlier research achievements in comparative electoral behavior, this four-country multivariate analysis compares the indices of voting and the party choice "trees" on the basis of national sample surveys conducted in the 1970s. From this crucial contest among the three determinants of party choice, religion emerges as the victor, language as a strong runner-up, and class as a distant third. The surprising strength of the religious factor can be explained in terms of the "freezing" of past conflict dimensions in the party system and the presence of alternative, regional-federal, structures for the expression of linguistic interests.
Kristdemokratiska samhällspartiet är på fram-marsch i den svenska väljarkåren. I valet 1988 gjorde kds sitt bästa val någonsin och erhöll drygt 2.9 procent av rösterna. Partiets opinionsstöd sta-biliserades därefter kring 3-4 procent, för att un-der andra halvåret 1990 ta ett rejält kliv över den betydelsefulla fyra-procentsgränsen. I Sifo:s och Temo:s marsmätningar 1991 fick kds rekordhöga 8.4 respektive 9.5 procent av partisympatierna. Enligt opinionsmätningarna och en näst intill samstämmig kör av politiska bedömare är partiet på god väg att ta säte i den svenska riksdagen. Opinionsframgången för Sveriges kristdemo-kratiska parti kan tyckas märklig. De religiösa frågorna har aldrig spelat någon framträdande roll i svensk politik -till en del sannolikt be-roende på att den typen av frågor kan innebära ett hot mot de etablerade partiernas inre sam-manhållning.' Kopplingen mellan religion och väljarnas val av parti har dessutom alltid varit svagare i Sverige än i jämförbara länder i Syd-och Mellaneuropa. 2 Den under hela efterkrigsti-den fortgående sekulariseringen av det svenska samhället visar knappast heller några tecken på avmattning. 3 Den svaga kopplingen mellan religion och poli-tik liksom kristdemokraternas hittillsvarande oförmåga att ta sig in i riksdagen skall dock inte tas till intäkt för att den religiösa faktorn är helt betydelselös som ledsagare för de svenska väl-jarna. Bland olika förklaringar till partivalet, knutna till väljarnas sociala och ekonomiska grupptillhörigheter, är visserligen den mångom-talade klassröstningen den klart viktigaste fak-torn. Men samtidigt är den sk religiösa röstning-en ett mer påtagligt fenomen än t ex "könsröst-ning" och "sektorsröstning". Vid valet 1988 uppgick skillnaden mellan andel arbetare och an-del medelklassväljare som röstade på socialde-mokraterna eller vpk till 66 minus 37 = 29 pro-centenheter (Alfords klassröstningsindex = 29). 4 Motsvarande differens för kvinnor och män var 53 minus 49 = 4 enheter, för väljare i offentlig och privat sektor 50 minus 47 = 3 enheter och för icke kyrkobesökare och kyrkobesökare 56 minus 40 = 16 enheter. I likhet med klassröstningen är dock den religiösa röstningen mindre viktig idag än för 20-25 år sedan (se tabell 1). Den religiösa röstningen har minskat med en tredjedel sedan mitten av 1960-talet. I riksdags-valet 1964 röstade 66 procent av icke kyrkobesö-karna och 42 procent av kyrkobesökarna på soci-aldemokraterna eller det dåvarande kommunist-partiet (index för religiös röstning: 66 minus 42 = 24). Vid valet 1988 hade den skillnaden krympt Tabell 1: Religiös röstning vid valen 1964, 1968, 1985 och 1988. Andel röstande på socialdemokraterna eller vpk bland kyrkobesökare och icke kyrkobesökare (pro-cent).
Scholars and pundits have long questioned the ability of the least politically aware to receive and respond to relevant political information. I argue, however, that for most issues we should expect even least politically attentive to systematically respond to relevant political infor- mation. The analysis evaluates attitudes toward Vietnam and defense spending preferences—two issues where political awareness is thought to matter most (Zaller 1992, Bartels 1994)—using sub-aggregate and individual level data at monthly and annual intervals. The results strongly support the claim that the least informed respond to changes in elite discourse. Furthermore, the claims in this paper appear to generalize to other issues, such as trust in government and the most important problem facing the country. The theory and findings oer a new understanding
This study analyzes the relationship between religion and political behavior in recent presidential elections in the United States. The magnitude of the religious cleavage remains substantial but has declined during the past nine presidential elections. The single factor behind this decline is the reduction in support for Republican candidates among denominationally liberal Protestants, whose changing voting behavior is a function of their increasingly liberal views of social issues. The political alignments of Catholics and conservative Protestants have been very stable relative to the electorate-wide mean over this time period, and the authors find no evidence of increased political mobilization among conservative Protestants.
Although early behavioural research found a linear relation between education and turnout in American national elections, validated vote data from the CPS National Election Studies show that during the 1970s and 1980s, White grade schoolers outvoted those with some high school. This puzzling relationship is cleared up when it is discovered that elderly citizens, who vote at relatively high rates, are increasingly disproportionately represented in the grade school category, and that young Whites who are high school dropouts have very low turnout records. Future studies of formal schooling's effect on turnout must take this age-skew of educational attainment into account.
This article explores the relationship between religiosity and voting decisions in Spain and Portugal. We study whether religion (measured as church attendance and opinions about moral issues) influences voting for the two main political parties. Results show a different relationship between religion and voting in both countries: only in Spain religious beliefs play an important role in electoral behaviour. We claim that to account for this finding several factors need to be considered, namely the different configuration of the party systems and religious maps, the distinctive mechanisms linking religious identities with voting and, above all, the important role played by political leaders in activating religiosity within the electoral competition.
This study examines the relationship between socioeconomic status and non-voting using data from the first module of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project,. SES influences non-voting in all countries included in the first module, regardless of economic, political or institutional characteristics. The strength and patterns of the relationship between SES and non-voting vary cross-nationally. The main finding is that four SES variables are consistently related to non-voting even after contextual factors, like economic conditions, electoral history (whether a new or consolidated democracies), electoral rules, and party systems are taken into account, low SES is still associated with non-voting.
RésuméPendant presque cinquante ans, les catholiques hollandais ont voté exclusivement pour un parti politique particulier: le Parti catholique. Ils ont constitué de beaucoup la sous-culture politique la plus unie de l'Europe occidentale. Puis, en 1967, la base du parti a commencé à s'effriter. En 1972, it n'y avail plus qu'une petite fraction des catholiques qui votait encore pour le parti; en 1980, le parti n'existait plus. Le cas des catholiques hollandais donne l'occasion d'évaluer les théories du vote religieux, particulièrement les théories de la persistance des clivages religieux dans les sociétés industrielles et celles sur la stabilité et le changement électoraux. Les conclusions indiquent que l'autoritarisme de l'Eglise, les initiatives économiques et sociales du clergé et des chefs laics ainsi que les forces économiques expliquent la cohésion exceptionnelle d'avant 1967. Le Parti catholique n'a joué qu'un rôle réduit. La dissolution du bloc catholique pendant les années soixante et le déclin concomitant de la clientèle du Parti catholique résultaient, pour une bonne part, des initiatives des chefs de l'Eglise. Les facteurs politiques ont joué un rôle secondaire. Non seulement l'Eglise retirait-elle ses sanctions, mais encore les catholiques étaient encouragés à explorer de nouveaux moyens de participation sociale, religieuse et politique. A partir de données agrégées et d'enquêtes, l'étude conclut à l'importance des élites et des forces économiques tant pour maintenir le clivage religieux que pour altérer les bases des partis politiques. Les résultats suggèrent également que les blocs religieux comprenant un éventail de classes s'adaptent mieux aux processus d'industrialisation que les mouvements on partis socialistes, un point qui pourrait s'avérer utile pour expliquer le succès des partis religieux ailleurs.
The objective of this study is to examine the dynamics of mass politics in contemporary Greece by investigating the effects of certain community characteristics (i.e., traditionalism, social rank, community satisfaction) on intra-urban voting patterns in the Athens metropolitan area. The focus is on the 1964 legislative election. In contrast to the inconclusive results of previous national level studies, as well as existing literature which has stressed vertical political ties and personality factors, the findings presented here offer empirical justification to the view that basic socioeconomic factors have exerted a statistically significant effect on intra-urban spatial differences in partisan preferences in contemporary Greece. Both the theory and the data indicate that objective dimensions of the urban ecological structure, namely social rank and traditionalism, coupled with the subjective level of community satisfaction, have been closely associated with variations in electoral choice. Social rank proved to be a significant determinant of the left-right cleavage in urban Greece. The evidence drawn from the Athens area strongly suggested a movement away from traditional patterns toward the emergence of a more rational and pragmatic basis for electoral choice in the Greek urban milieu.
This paper examines voting preferences of Greeks during the 1981 general election, based on a public opinion survey. The sample (N = 598) includes three heterogeneous target groups (professionals, labourers and rurals) which represent a broad spectrum of the Greek society. It is hypothesized that Greece is undergoing social and political changes. These changes are measured with an empirical model constructed to employ three sets of indicators. The first set measured the degree and direction of influence on the 1981 conservative vote by objective conditions. The second set measured the degree and direction of the influence of subjective conditions on the same vote. The third set measured the degree and direction of influence of values and issues also on the same vote. The results indicate that both objective and subjective conditions were less important than values and issues. Thus, the influence of some objective factors (such as income or sex) on the conservative vote was either low or inverse. Similarly, the conservative influence of subjective factors (such as family and school) was weak. Instead, modern values and issues are becoming influential.
Debates over the political sophistication of mass publics smolder on. The more fundamental question, however, is why people become as politically sophisticated or unsophisticated as they do. This paper develops a nonlinear simultaneous equation model to weigh explanations of three general sorts: the politicalinformation to which people are exposed, theirability to assimilate and organize such information, and theirmotivation to do so. The estimates suggest that interest and intelligence, representing motivation and ability, have major effects, but that education and media exposure, the big informational variables, do not. I consider the reasons and sketch some implications for the sophistication of mass publics, for the study of sophistication and other variables of extent, and for democratic theory.
Using the SRC/CPS''s national election surveys from 1956 to 1976, this paper investigates the effect of education on consistency among the public''s domestic policy opinions. Evidence from both gamma correlations and factor analysis indicates that education has neither a strong nor a linear effect on issue constraint over the 20 years covered by the data, for the lowest and the highest education strata consistently show the highest levels of constraint. We do not conclude, however, that education is unrelated to recognition of ideological concepts, for almost one-half of the lowest education stratum do not use liberal and conservative terms. We conclude that issue constraint does not directly translate into ideology and suggest some new directions that future research should take if we are to evaluate effectively the effect of education on opinion structuring.
This study explores political awareness of Czech citizens from the point of view of both its distribution within the society, its dimensionality and sources, and its effect on political attitudes and their constraints. This topic is important for political representation. According to one of the most influential theories of political representation, the Responsible Party Model, citizens are only effectively represented in parliament and government if they are (1.) able to articulate their policy preferences, (2.) discriminate between political parties’ policy platforms and (3.) the capacity to select the party most likely to implement citizens’ desired preferences. Empirical research from the 1950s demonstrates that citizens are often uninformed, and this suggests that political representation is likely to be biased in favour of citizens with high levels of education, income and knowledge. Whether this is indeed the case depends critically on being able to determine in a valid and reliable manner how much citizens know about politics and to evaluate the consequences of low levels of knowledge on democratic systems.
The evidence presented in this study using the ISSP Role of Government (2006) dataset shows that Czech citizens know most about local and national politics and political players, and are least informed about international affairs. Moreover, the distribution of political knowledge is systematically biased and this results in specific forms of political inequality. It also shows that mobilising effects, level of resources, and cognitive ability, determine level of political knowledge at the individual level. These political knowledge differences also result in differences in the level of constraints between political attitudes with less knowledgeable having less constrained (or structured) attitudes. This threatens the process of political representation as political programmes consist of structured set of attitudes.
This article explores the relationship between religiosity and voting decisions in Spain and Portugal. We study whether religion (measured as church attendance and opinions about moral issues) influences voting for the two main political parties. Results show a different relationship between religion and voting in both countries: only in Spain religious beliefs play an important role in electoral behaviour. We claim that to account for this finding several factors need to be considered, namely the different configuration of the party systems and religious maps, the distinctive mechanisms linking religious identities with voting and, above all, the important role played by political leaders in activating religiosity within the electoral competition.
Este artículo explora la relación entre la religiosidad y las preferencias electorales en España y Portugal. Estudiamos si la religión (medida como asistencia a oficios religiosos y opiniones sobre asuntos morales) tiene influencia sobre el voto a los dos principales partidos nacionales. Los resultados del análisis apuntan a una relación diferente entre religión y voto en ambos países: sólo en España las creencias religiosas desempeñan un papel destacado en el comportamiento electoral. Defendemos que la explicación a este hallazgo se encuentra en un conjunto de factores entre los que cabe destacar la diferente configuración del sistema de partidos y de los mapas religiosos, los distintos mecanismos que canalizan las identidades religiosas hacia el voto y, fundamentalmente, el importante papel desempeñado por las elites políticas en la activación de la religiosidad dentro de la competición electoral.
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