Suchergebnisse

This article tests the role of deliberation in potentially reducing the gender gap in knowledge. It compares gender differences in knowledge of both participants and non-participants before and after the Europolis deliberative event took place by making use of the difference in difference estimation method. Findings show that deliberation increases the political knowledge of participants (especially women) suggesting that it contributes to reducing the gender gap in knowledge by providing participants not only with information and awareness about the topics discussed but also with confidence when answering factual knowledge questions. These results suggest the need to conduct further research about the way in which information–rich contexts might reduce other potential inequalities in sources of knowledge.

El artículo comprueba la hipótesis del voto económico en las elecciones generales de1996 y 2000. Argumenta que es necesario reflexionar sobre la lógica de la teoría delvoto económico y traducirla en términos empíricos de una manera más sofisticada quela simple hipótesis del premio-castigo, según la cual una crisis económica conlleva el castigoal partido en el gobierno por parte del elector. Los resultados del análisis empíricosugieren que la economía entró en las urnas tanto en las elecciones de 1996 como enlas de 2000. Esto quiere decir que el voto económico sirvió tanto para castigar a lossocialistas después de una etapa de recesión, como para premiar al gobierno del PP poruna legislatura de prosperidad económica. Ahora bien, mientras que el castigo a los socialistasno sólo estuvo motivado por razones económicas, todo parece indicar que el premioal PP estuvo causado principalmente por su gestión de la política económica, y por lasexpectativas optimistas que generó entre los electores.

This article analyzes the media effects on political knowledge after controlling for the most common factors (motivation, ability, and opportunities) in Spain. In addition, it explores whether the media contribute to increasing the existent knowledge gap in the Spanish polity. The results show that only one medium appears to have significant effects on knowledge: newspapers. An additional finding is that exposure to political information in newspapers does not reinforce the knowledge gap between different socioeconomic groups. Moreover, the relationship between education and knowledge appears to be weaker among heavy newspaper users than among light newspaper users. Interestingly, this result runs contrary to that predicted by the knowledge gap hypothesis and suggests that political institutions should promote increased access to the press for poorly educated citizens, particularly in countries where there is an extremely polarized media system, with a clear political alignment of the main media holdings, such as the case of Spain. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Sage Publications Inc.]

This article analyzes the media effects on political knowledge after controlling for the most common factors (motivation, ability, and opportunities) in Spain. In addition, it explores whether the media contribute to increasing the existent knowledge gap in the Spanish polity. The results show that only one medium appears to have significant effects on knowledge: newspapers. An additional finding is that exposure to political information in newspapers does not reinforce the knowledge gap between different socioeconomic groups. Moreover, the relationship between education and knowledge appears to be weaker among heavy newspaper users than among light newspaper users. Interestingly, this result runs contrary to that predicted by the knowledge gap hypothesis and suggests that political institutions should promote increased access to the press for poorly educated citizens, particularly in countries where there is an extremely polarized media system, with a clear political alignment of the main media holdings, such as the case of Spain.

This article tests the economic voting hypothesis for the 1996 & 2000 Spanish general elections. The simplest economic voting hypothesis suggests that other things being equal, a good economic performance will make voters support the incumbent. In contrast, I propose to test the existence of economic voting in Spain by systematically considering the political, economic, & sociological contexts in which elections take place. The model seeks to identify the different ways in which public opinion may be related to the state of the economy. The main results of the empirical analysis presented in the article suggest that the economy entered the ballot-box both in the 1996 & 2000 general elections in Spain. While the electoral punishment of the socialists in the 1996 elections was not exclusively motivated by economic reasons, the electoral rewarding of the conservatives was mainly motivated by the positive economic performance, which generated a general trend of optimistic economic expectations in Spanish public opinion. Tables, Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractWhat is political and what is not? While conventional wisdom in public opinion research assumes a shared understanding of political matters, recent studies have challenged this assumption. In this article, we theorize and analyze how the prominence of abortion in the media affects whether or not citizens consider abortion a political issue. Leveraging the unexpected surge in media attention to abortion regulation in Spanish media during our survey fieldwork we implement an Unexpected Event During Survey Design. Our findings reveal that respondents interviewed after abortion gained salience in the media were 10% points more likely to perceive abortion as a political matter.

AbstractGiven women's gains in employment, education, and economic status, the persistent gender gap in internal political efficacy remains a puzzle for social scientists. We go beyond standard socioeconomic explanations and consider gender roles, which, unlike socioeconomic situation, are a slow-moving force constrained by gendered socialization. Stereotypically feminine traits jar with stereotypical notions of politics in general, as competitive, and leaders as power-seeking and assertive. Drawing on observational data from an original survey fielded in Spain, we show that this incongruence accounts for women's perception of having a low capacity to participate in politics. Results from a survey experiment suggest that this relationship is not set in stone, however. When politicians' motivation is framed in line with feminine traits—as a public service rather than a struggle for power—women consider themselves just as capable as men of participating in politics. The results have implications for women's political participation and representation in politics.

Objective Scrutinize how the three main sources of knowledge inequalities, namely, gender, age, and education, relate to the content, format, and object of the survey items used to measure knowledge Methods Using a pooled data set encompassing 106 postelection surveys in 47 countries from the CSES, we perform analyses by stacking the data at the question level. Results Questions probing familiarity with electoral and partisan politics provide knowledge gaps of a higher magnitude. However, our balanced comparison of the three gaps also confirms the peculiarities of the gender gap in knowledge previously portrayed by the bulk of the literature. Conclusion Surveys aspiring to measure citizens knowledge about the political world in a valid manner should include items inquiring about different substantive contents, and not only elections or partisan politics as the available postelectoral surveys around the world currently do. They also should use closedended format with at least four possible options, and should maximize the object of inquiry, so that the cognitive abilities required to correctly answer the questions are diverse and the measurement does not favor one over the others. ; (VLID)5800533

AbstractNotwithstanding the improvement in gender equality in political power and resources in European democracies, this study shows that, on average, declared interest in politics is 16 per cent lower for women than for men in Europe. This gap remains even after controlling for differences in men's and women's educational attainment, material and cognitive resources. Drawing on the newly developed European Institute for Gender Equality's (EIGE) Gender Equality Index (GEI) and on the European Social Survey (ESS) fifth wave, we show that promoting gender equality contributes towards narrowing the magnitude of the differences in political interest between men and women. However, this effect appears to be conditioned by the age of citizens. More specifically, findings show that in Europe gender‐friendly policies contribute to bridging the gender gap in political engagement only during adulthood, suggesting that childhood socialisation is more strongly affected by traditional family values than by policies promoting gender equality. In contrast, feminising social citizenship does make a difference by reducing the situational disadvantages traditionally faced by women within the family and in society for middle‐aged people and older.

This article tests contextual and individual-level explanations of the gender gap in political knowledge in Latin American countries. It suggests that this gap is impacted by political and economic settings through two interrelated mechanisms: gender accessibility (that is, the extent of available opportunities for women to influence the political agenda) and gender-bias signaling (that is, the extent to which women play important roles in the public sphere). Analyzing data from the 2008 Americas Barometer survey, this study shows that the gender gap in political knowledge is smaller among highly educated citizens, in rural areas (where both men and women know little about politics) and in bigger cities (where women's levels of political knowledge are higher). More importantly, the magnitude of the gap varies greatly across countries. Gender differences in income, party system institutionalization and the representation of women in national parliaments are all found to play a particularly important role in explaining the magnitude of the gender gap in political knowledge across Latin America.