Political cynicism and political efficacy: reflections on political representation and participation with students from a Brazilian Public University

Abstract

From a psychosocial perspective, this article examines what young university students think about political participation and representation in the current conjuncture in Brazil. Forty-five undergraduate students from a public university (between the ages of 18 and 37 years) participated in the study. The conceptual framework of our analysis is based on political cynicism and political efficacy. Political cynicism is associated with the credibility of leadership, and feelings of political efficacy/inefficacy are related to the trustworthiness of a political movement or entity. Such phenomena portray perceptions about the ability of political actors and movements to achieve desired ends, which, in turn, influences processes of political identification and engagement. Participants’ narratives suggest that the current political moment is characterized by a representation crisis, for an intense reconfiguration of previous references, political representation patterns, and sociopolitical bonds. They also perceive a steady increase in political and economic deregulation. These elements indicate a trend of rising levels of perceived political cynicism and feelings of political inefficacy, even though these phenomena coexist with a certain political engagement and interest of the participants.

Full text

Vol.:(0123456789)
SN Soc Sci (2023) 3:27
https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-022-00599-y
REVIEW PAPER
Political cynicism andpolitical efficacy: reflections
onpolitical representation andparticipation withstudents
fromaBrazilian Public University
AntonioEuzébiosFilho1 · StéphanieChiconeliTabata2
Received: 14 October 2021 / Accepted: 15 December 2022 / Published online: 18 January 2023
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Abstract
From a psychosocial perspective, this article examines what young university stu-
dents think about political participation and representation in the current conjunc-
ture in Brazil. Forty-five undergraduate students from a public university (between
the ages of 18 and 37years) participated in the study. The conceptual framework of
our analysis is based on political cynicism and political efficacy. Political cynicism
is associated with the credibility of leadership, and feelings of political efficacy/inef-
ficacy are related to the trustworthiness of a political movement or entity. Such phe-
nomena portray perceptions about the ability of political actors and movements to
achieve desired ends, which, in turn, influences processes of political identification
and engagement. Participants’ narratives suggest that the current political moment
is characterized by a representation crisis, for an intense reconfiguration of previous
references, political representation patterns, and sociopolitical bonds. They also per-
ceive a steady increase in political and economic deregulation. These elements indi-
cate a trend of rising levels of perceived political cynicism and feelings of political
inefficacy, even though these phenomena coexist with a certain political engagement
and interest of the participants.
Keywords Conjuncture· Youth· Political cynicism· Political efficacy· Political
representation
* Stéphanie Chiconeli Tabata
stephanietabata88@gmail.com
Antonio Euzébios Filho
antonioeuzebios@usp.br
1 Department ofSocial andWork Psychology, Institute ofPsychology, University ofSão Paulo,
SãoPaulo, SP, Brazil
2 Institute ofPsychology, University ofSão Paulo, SãoPaulo, SP, Brazil
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.