Attitudes%20towards%20Politics%20in%20a

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• Attitudes towards Politics in a
• Multilevel Political System
• The Case of
• Political Competence Feelings

European
National
Local
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Why do I look at Political Attitudes?
science
education

OUTPUT
INPUT
the political system
economy
Feedback
Implementation Control
Interest Articulation Interest Aggregation
Decision Making
traffic
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Why do I look at Feelings of Political
Competence?

• (T)he existence of a belief in the influence
  potential of citizens may affect the political
  system even if it does not affect the political
  activity of the ordinary man. If decision makers
  believe that the ordinary man could participate .
  . . they are likely to behave quite differently
  than if such a belief did not exist. Even if
  individuals do not act according to this belief,
  decision makers may act on the assumption that
  they can, and in this way be more responsive to
  the citizenry than they would be if the myth of
  participation did not exist.
• (Almond/Verba 1965 139)

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Positive Feelings of Local and National Political
Competence, 1959
USA in GB in D in I in
Locally 76.8 77.7 61.8 39.1
Nationally 74.4 62.1 37.6 24.9
Diff. Loc.-Nat. 2.4 15.6 24.2 14.2

• Question wording Suppose a law or regulation
  were being considered by the local authorities
  (or parliament of your country) that you
  considered to be unjust or harmful, what do you
  think could you do about it? 00. nothing
  10.-90. various activities alone or with others
  via formal and other channels.
• Data Civic Culture Study (S0624) the
  percentages in the table refer to all respondents.

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Why do I look at Attitudes towards Local Politics?

• Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835
• The strength of free peoples resides in the
  local community. Local institutions are to
  liberty what primary schools are to science
  they put it within the people's reach they teach
  people to appreciate its peaceful enjoyment and
  accustom them to make use of it. Without local
  institutions a nation may give itself a free
  government, but it has not got the spirit of
  liberty.

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Why do I look at Attitudes towards Local Politics?

• Dahl, Robert A. 1994 A Democratic Dilemma.
  System Effectiveness versus Citizen
  Participation, in Political Science Quarterly 1
  23-34.
• (I)n the future all democratic countries will be
  challenged to discover ways of maintaining and
  strengthening the democratic process as they
  adapt to transnational forces. ... democratic
  life in smaller communities below the level of
  the national state could be enhanced. The larger
  scale of decisions need not lead inevitability to
  a widening sense of powerlessness, provided
  citizens can exercise significant control over
  decisions on the smaller scale of matters
  important in their daily lives education, public
  health, town and city planning, the supply and
  quality of the local public sector, from streets
  and lightning to parks and playgrounds, and the
  like.

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Attitudes towards Local Politics A Resource for
Democracy?
National Output Orientations
Feelings of National Identification
National Input Orientations
spillover effects
spillover effects
spillover effects
positive
positive
positive
Local Input Orientations
Local Output Orientations
Feelings of Local Identification
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My Research Questions

1. Can feelings of local political competence serve
   as a resource for competence feelings at higher
   system levels?
2. Are there institutional factors like local
   autonomy or the local institutional arrangement
   that support a high potential of locally
   socialized attitudes to be transferred to higher
   levels of government?

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Data

• Data
• Public Opinion Data Research Project on Local
  and National Political Attitudes in Europe 1999,
  sponsored by the Thyssen Foundation European
  Survey Data collected from Inra Europe on the
  request of the department for social sciences,
  University Stuttgart. Micro data covered 12
  countries with 1.000 respondents in each country
  Finland, the UK, Ireland, Belgium, the
  Netherlands, France, Germany, Austria, Italy,
  Spain, Portugal, and Greece.
• Institutional Characteristics (local autonomy and
  integrative capacity of local politics)
  Literature review publications and data from
  OECD and the Council of Europe

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Operationalization of the Main (dependent)
Variable

• Suppose a law were being considered by ltthe
  parliament of your countrygt that you considered
  to be unjust or harmful, do you think you could
  do something about it, or not?
• Suppose a regulation were being considered by the
  local authorities that you considered to be
  unjust or harmful, do you think you could do
  something about it, or not?
• Answer possibilities 1. yes, 2. no, 3. dont
  know.

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Can feelings of local political competence serve
as a resource for competence feelings at higher
system levels?Conditions for a positive
attitudinal transfer

• Adding three factors together local and
  national competence are related, local competence
  is more widespread than national, and local
  competence is related to the institutional
  availability of opportunities to participate on
  the local level one has an argument in favor of
  the classic position that political participation
  on the local level plays a major role in the
  development of a competent citizenry. As many
  writers have argued, local government may act as
  a training ground for political competence. Where
  local government allows participation, it may
  foster a sense of competence that then spreads to
  the national level.
• Almond and Verba (1965 144f).

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Can feelings of local political competence serve
as a resource for competence feelings at higher
system levels?Conditions for a positive
attitudinal transfer
relative importance of attitudes towards local politics relative importance of attitudes towards local politics
local attitudes less pronounced than national attitudes local attitudes more pronounced than national attitudes
correlations between local and national attitudes High local politics not important for the socialization of political support for higher system levels local politics very important for the socialization of political support for higher system levels
correlations between local and national attitudes low local politics not important for the socialization of political support for higher system levels local politics important for the socialization of political support for higher system levels
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Feelings of Local Political Competence in Western
Europe, 1999 (in of all respondents)
Question wording 'Suppose a regulation were
being considered by (THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES
municipality, commune, etc.) that you considered
to be unjust or harmful. Do you think you could
do something about it, or not?' Answer
possibilities 1. Yes, 2. No, 3. Don't know / no
answer. Data from Inra Europe.
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Feelings of Local and National Political
Competence in Western Europe, 1999 (in of all
respondents)
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Levels of local and national political competence
in Europe and their relationship (1999, in of
all respondents Cramers V)
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Can feelings of local political competence serve
as a resource for competence feelings at higher
system levels?
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Are there structural factors that support locally
socialized attitudes to be transferred to higher
levels of government?Hypotheses

• An integrative local political structure
  strengthens the level of local political
  competence.
• Local autonomy strengthens the level of local
  political competence.
• The higher the degree of local autonomy, the
  lower the relationship between local and national
  attitudes should be.

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Measuring Local Autonomy in Western Europe
Literature low Degree of local autonomy Medium Degree of local autonomy Medium Degree of local autonomy Medium high
Lane/ Ersson 1987 F, GR, IRE I, E, P SF, B, NL, B, A, N, DK, S D CH
Dreier 1994 I, GR, F GB, IRE E, P, SF,N, DK,S D, A, CH
Hesse/ Sharp 1991 Franco-Group B, F, I, E, P, GR - Anglo-Group GB, IRE - Middle/North Europ. Group D, A, CH, NL, N, S, DK, SF
Page 1991 Goldsmith 1997 GB, IRE South European Group F, B, I, E, - North European Group S, N, DK, NL Germanic Systems D, A, CH,
Vetter 2002 GR, I, IRE, NL, GB B, P, A, E, F, D N, DK, S, SF
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Measuring Local Autonomy (Page/Goldsmith 1987)

• Political dimension
• Representation of local interest in national
  politics
• Legal dimension
• - Scope of action (functional scope) and
• - Degree of discretion

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The Two Dimensions of Local Autonomy in Western
Europe
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Measuring Local Integrative Capacity
Majoritarian Local Government Systems Mixed types Consensual Local Government Systems
Composition/ Election of the Local Council Majoritarian Mixed Proportional
Election of the local executive body Directly elected or elected by the council Directly elected or elected by the council By the council
Composition of the local executive body Major or clearly dominated collective body unclear Mainly proportionally composed collective body
Countries France, United Kingdom, Italy, Greece Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain Finland, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Ireland
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Are there structural factors that support locally
socialized attitudes to be transferred to higher
levels of government?
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Are there structural factors that support locally
socialized attitudes to be transferred to higher
levels of government?
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Summary

• In all countries local competence feelings exceed
  the respective national feelings.
• In all countries correlations between local and
  national feelings of political competence are
  positive.
• Therefore, local politics can perform as a
  resource of political support, especially
  concerning feelings of political competence.
• Local integrative capacity has no effects for the
  generalization of locally socialized competence
  feelings.
• Local autonomy (the scope of locally performed
  functions) has ambivalent effects with regard to
  such spillover effects.