Suchergebnisse

This article explores the effects that a salient political center—periphery cleavage has on the structure (social networks) and outcomes (political attitudes) of social capital. The comparison of different regions within the same country supports the thesis that social capital is a reflection of the context in which it takes place. In this framework, social capital undermines equal representation of citizens' identities. Second, political fragmentation is reproduced by the existence of more bonding than bridging social capital. Finally, it allows for the identification of scenarios in which involvement in informal social networks leads to both positive and negative consequences for citizens' attitudes toward politics.

Our article investigates political engagement among youth with and without an immigration background. Tapping to current debates on intergenerational assimilation processes in Europe, we look at differences in levels of political interest between immigrants, children of immigrants and natives. In particular, we argue that such differences are a function of respondents' identification with the receiving society. We predict that among respondents with an immigrant background higher levels of national identification will be positively correlated with political interest. Among natives, political interest will not depend on levels of national identification. These expectations reflect the ideas of the social identity perspective according to which group identification increases adherence to group norms and adherence to norms is stronger among individuals who suffer from identity uncertainty. We test our model in four European countries: England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, using data from the CILS4EU project. Our findings indicate that interest in the politics of the survey country differs between respondents with and without an immigrant background. Respondents with an immigrant background who also have a strong national identification are more likely to report a political interest than natives. Respondents with an immigrant background who have a low national identification, are less likely to report a political interest than natives. The findings also reveal that political discussions at home and associationism positively predict political interest whereas girls show significantly lower odds to be politically interested.

The economic crisis transformed the way in which European citizens relate to politics in general but particularly affected young people. The crisis resulted in decreased levels of trust in political institutions and increased levels of political protest. But little attention has been paid to the post-crisis period. Ten years on, what are young people's attitudes and behaviour? This article examines the potential long term consequences of the economic crisis on young people's political interest, political trust and political participation. In examining political behaviour we use a classification of types of participants that allows us to compare young people to adults, and young people before, during and after the economic crisis. Empirically, we use a descriptive approach using survey data from the European Social Survey, covering a considerable period of time (2002-2016) and 16 European countries. The comparison is threefold: young people over time, young people to adults, and young people across countries. The results support the idea of the emergence of a post-crisis youth that is more engaged and participative than adults and young people before the crisis. However the results do not show radical differences among countries that were affected by the economic crisis in varying degrees. ; La crisis económica transformó la manera en la que los ciudadanos se relacionan con la política, afectando de forma más directa a los jóvenes. La crisis supuso un descenso en los niveles de confianza en las instituciones políticas, así como un aumento de las acciones de protesta. Sin embargo, el periodo post-crisis está aún por ser analizado. Diez años después, ¿qué ha ocurrido con las actitudes y comportamientos políticos de los jóvenes? Este artículo analiza las potenciales consecuencias a largo plazo del interés por la política y la confianza institucional de los jóvenes, así como de sus niveles de participación política. Al examinar su comportamiento político, usamos una clasificación de distintos tipos de participantes que nos permite comparar jóvenes y adultos, y también los jóvenes de antes, durante y después de la crisis. A nivel empírico, utilizamos una estrategia descriptiva, valiéndonos de datos de encuesta de la Encuesta Social Europea, cubriendo un importante periodo de tiempo (2002-2016) y 16 países europeos. La comparación, por tanto, es triple: jóvenes a lo largo del tiempo, jóvenes y adultos y jóvenes en diferentes países. Los resultados apoyan la idea del surgimiento de una juventud distinta en el periodo post-crisis, más implicada y participativa que los adultos y los jóvenes de antes de la crisis. Con todo, los resultados no muestran diferencias radicales entre países más y menos afectados por la crisis económica.

Our article investigates political engagement among youth with and without an immigration background. Tapping to current debates on intergenerational assimilation processes in Europe, we look at differences in levels of political interest between immigrants, children of immigrants and natives. In particular, we argue that such differences are a function of respondents' identification with the receiving society. We predict that among respondents with an immigrant background higher levels of national identification will be positively correlated with political interest. Among natives, political interest will not depend on levels of national identification. These expectations reflect the ideas of the social identity perspective according to which group identification increases adherence to group norms and adherence to norms is stronger among individuals who suffer from identity uncertainty. We test our model in four European countries: England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, using data from the CILS4EU project. Our findings indicate that interest in the politics of the survey country differs between respondents with and without an immigrant background. Respondents with an immigrant background who also have a strong national identification are more likely to report a political interest than natives. Respondents with an immigrant background who have a low national identification, are less likely to report a political interest than natives. The findings also reveal that political discussions at home and associationism positively predict political interest whereas girls show significantly lower odds to be politically interested.

Theories of democracy commonly assume that citizens must have a certain degree of information and factual knowledge to be able to understand the functioning of institutions, the performance of the incumbent government, and the actions of the main political actors. Political knowledge helps people to better assess their interest as individuals and as members of groups (Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996). Moreover, governments have more incentives to be responsive when they can be held accountable, but citizens are able to hold governments accountable for their actions only when they know what governments are actually doing.

The implications of the persistent gender gap in political knowledge are a puzzle that the literature is still disentangling; and research has evidenced important differences in the way women and men respond to survey questions. We argue in this article that political knowledge survey items not only inform about differences in cognition but also about other latent traits related to gender stereotyping. Gender stereotypes around political knowledge push men to be knowledgeable but not so much women, which we expect to affect men and women's survey responses differently. To test this expectation, we explore response times of do not know answers to political knowledge items. Our results show that men, particularly those who declare being interested in politics, take longer than women to admit that they do not know the answer to political knowledge items.