Argues that democratic citizenship consists of three related qualities: participation, influence, & involvement. The willingness of a citizen to be politically active, ie, participate in politics, is decided by the perceived probability that this activity will create political influence, & by the subjective experience of involvement in public affairs. 1 Figure. Adapted from the source document.
The notion of political participation is elaborated. The public sector, & particularly the welfare state, creates many arenas for citizen participation outside of established formal political channels. Stubbergaard outlines a new research project on mothers' experiences in these arenas & how & to what extent the mothers become politically included. 16 References. Adapted from the source document.
Social capital has been conceptualized both as a contextual property of communities & as a property of individuals. Two of the building blocks of the notion of social capital are social participation & trust. High levels of social participation & trust are reciprocally reinforcing with two-way causality, according to the literature. However, this mutual relationship is highly dependant on the quality of the social participation. During the last decades, membership & activity levels have decreased in traditional political parties, unions, & other organizations, while social participation in the form of Internet chats, single-issue movements, etc. probably has increased. At the same time the number of persons with a high level of generalized trust has sharply decreased in many Western countries, even though the trend is not apparent in Sweden. A high level of social participation in programmatically smaller networks & organizations with low trust has been called "miniaturization of community" by Fukuyama. The miniaturization of community & its implications for political science research are discussed, as well as the institutionalism perspective as an approach to study the causes of the miniaturization of community. Tables, Figures, Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.
The number of farmers in the Riksdag has progressively declined by about 25% between 1918 & 1958, a change esp noticeable in the 2nd chamber. Today this group is under-represented when it is considered that in 1958 farmers made up 29% of the voters in parliamentary elections. There has also been a change in the composition of the farm representation: the number of large property owners has been markedly reduced, while agri'al labors have made their appearance. The dominant groups consist of Mc farmers belonging to the conservative, agri'al & liberal parties, & another group of small farmers. The letter, along with the agri'al workers, are for the most part Soc Democrats. Thus it can be seen that the various pol'al parties pick their parliamentary representatives from diff farmer categories. (Tr by J. A. Broussard from IPSA).
Theories on political socialization are being reexamined as researchers are becoming skeptical of their explanatory power. Previous studies often characterized adolescence and young adults as passive objects for socialization, failing to grasp that the political views of adolescence and young adults are constantly changing, and often take a non-institutional form. Some researchers are trying a different approach where mechanisms and processes are put in a central role in determining how adolescents and young adults develop their civic engagement. The objective is to understand how civic engagement changes over time and what role the media and peers play in this socialization process. The studies will last for seven years and consists of longitudinal, experimental and follow-up studies. The results will be checked against individual, biological, sociological and cognitive factors, and gender. L. Pitkaniemi
Good political science is about making true and important statements about politics. Its first task is to allow this objective to guide practical research -- and teach how to work. Good political science is not paralyzed by the difficulties of reaching one's own ideals. Nor is it more difficult to achieve those ideals than those of anybody more important. Good political scientists note that difficulties are reflected on them, but never let them reduce involvement in political science tasks. Only by way of exception may good political science consist of a discussion of good political science. Adapted from the source document.
