Suchergebnisse

No study has yet explored the effect of all communication tools on political trust. Instead, studies on the media and their relationship with trust in political institutions have tended to focus on just a few types and have yielded contradictory results. This study aims to fill this gap, considering – on the one hand – television, the press and radio, and – on the other – the Internet and online social networks. Given that forms of media inevitably suffer from political choice as well as the political system, we analyse the effect of the media on public political trust. Based on pool data gathered by Eurobarometers (2014–2017) and multi-level regression techniques, it is possible to state that, of the various forms of media, the press and the Internet have a very significant effect on public political trust, as does media freedom.

Since democracy requires the involvement of citizens, the topic of political participation has attracted great attention from both practitioners and scholars. During the current financial and economic crisis, there have been various protest movements in many European countries. In this paper, which employs data from the European Social Survey and analyzes some European countries using a longitudinal study (2002-2012), I measure unconventional political participation considering three types of action - signed a petition, participated in a lawful demonstration and joined a boycott. By linking citizens to government ideology and vote for party government to political action through a multilevel model, this paper argues that both ideology and citizens' electoral choices have a bearing on unconventional political participation. In times of crisis, government choices do not feed the level of unconventional political participation. However, differences emerge in terms of political behavior when I consider citizens' ideology, loser status and government ideology.

L'immagine degli immigrati, mediata dai principali mezzi di comunicazione, ha condizionato l'opinione pubblica italiana generando un atteggiamento contraddittorio che, se da un lato lascia emergere una netta solidarietŕ nei confronti dello straniero, dall'altro, rivela timori e paure generati dalla crescente presenza di immigrati sul territorio italiano. In questo lavoro, utilizzando alcune indagini, sono stati analizzati, in un'ottica sincronica e diacronica, i cambiamenti che nell'ultimo decennio hanno caratterizzato il rapporto tra gli italiani e gli immigrati.

What are the political implications of government scandals? This article examines the impact of political scandals on the popularity of the Italian government. The literature on scandals shows that there is a strong relationship between scandals and the popularity of individual politicians and government leaders. Yet, the question of how scandals influence support for governments remains open. Exploring the case of Italy through the use of different data series, the article shows how sex and economic scandals have affected government popularity in 2005-2010

In the EU candidate countries the citizens' support for the democratic process is important for domestic democracy as well as the integration process.Many factors contribute to explain democratic support (Dalton 2004), and many aspects should be considered in order to have a good understanding of the democratic processes that characterize the new democracies.Focusing on economic expectations, political knowledge, political discussion and education, in this paper democracy support in Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Turkey is analyzed using two specific measures: support for political community and public institutions.The principal results show weak ties between citizens and State. This is more evident in ex-communist countries where the effects of past totalitarian regimes linger as mistrust of citizens towards their public institution and low support for the democratic process. On the contrary, in Turkey the explicative models of democracy support are significant and consistent with citizens' support for the democratic process.

This study analyzes the concept of democracy support by focusing on a few conceptual aspects. In past research, some scholars have limited their study to particular aspects, for example, the "satisfaction with democracy," while others have used only indicators relative to the legitimacy of democracy. In this research, studying concepts such as those above within an Italian context, we analyze the dimensions of democracy support from both synchronic & diachronic viewpoints following Eastons' conceptualization. The principal results show that the dimensions of Italian democracy support are in line with Easton's conceptualization. They are characterized by five dimensions; each one is representative of a specific aspect of democracy support. Adopting bivariate & multivariate analyses, this work demonstrates that in Italy, support for democracy has increased over time, both in terms of "diffuse" & "specific" support. Despite this trend, dissatisfaction with the political class among Italian citizens has increased, confirming a gap between citizens & politicians. Adapted from the source document.

How do economic recessions affect European citizens' attitudes towards environmental policies? In this article we investigate the attitudes of European citizens towards environmental protection considering its importance both at individual and country levels and adopting a longitudinal view. In light of the existing research on the link between pro-environmental attitudes and economic affluence of societies, including Ronald Inglehart's theory of post-materialism, we hypothesise that levels of economic well-being as well as trust in political institutions are important drivers of Europeans' attitudes towards environmental protection. Taking into consideration some macroeconomic indicators and the environmental attitude of public opinion, our main results show that even in time of crises, citizens' pro-environmental attitudes persist in terms of importance, both at country and individual levels.

AbstractHow do economic recessions affect European citizens' attitudes towards environmental policies? In this article we investigate the attitudes of European citizens towards environmental protection considering its importance both at individual and country levels and adopting a longitudinal view. In light of the existing research on the link between pro-environmental attitudes and economic affluence of societies, including Ronald Inglehart's theory of post-materialism, we hypothesise that levels of economic well-being as well as trust in political institutions are important drivers of Europeans' attitudes towards environmental protection. Taking into consideration some macroeconomic indicators and the environmental attitude of public opinion, our main results show that even in time of crises, citizens' pro-environmental attitudes persist in terms of importance, both at country and individual levels.