Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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Attitudes towards Politics in a

Multilevel Political System

The Case of

Political Competence Feelings

European

Local

National

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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Why do I look at Political Attitudes?

the political systemOUTPUTINPUT

Feedback

Interest Articulation

Interest Aggregation

Decision Making Implementation

Control

education

traffic

science

economy

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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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)

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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Positive Feelings of Local and National Political Competence, 1959

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.

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

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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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.”

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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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.“

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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Attitudes towards Local Politics: A Resource for Democracy?

Feelings of National

Identification

Local Input Orientations

Feelings of Local Identification

Local Output Orientations

National Output

Orientations

National Input Orientations

posi

tive

posi

tive

posi

tive

spill

over

ef

fect

s

spill

over

ef

fect

s

spill

over

ef

fect

s

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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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?

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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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

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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Operationalization of the Main (dependent) Variable

• “Suppose a law were being considered by <the parliament of your country> 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. don’t know.

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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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).

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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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 attitudestowards local politics

local attitudesless pronounced than

national attitudes

local attitudesmore 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

low

local politics important for the socialization of political support for higher system levels

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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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 some thing about it, or not?' Answer possibilities: 1. Yes, 2. No, 3. Don't know / no answer. Data from Inra Europe.

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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Feelings of Local and National Political Competence in Western Europe, 1999 (in % of all respondents)

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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Levels of local and national political competence in Europe and their relationship (1999, in % of all respondents; Cramer’s V)

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

Inst

itut

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SO

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

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

Inst

itut

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Soz

ialw

isse

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SO

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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.

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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Measuring Local Autonomy in Western Europe

Literaturelow

Degree of local autonomyMedium high

Lane/Ersson 1987

F, GR, IRE I, E, PSF, 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 1991Goldsmith 1997

GB, IRE

“South European

Group”F, B, I, E,

-

“North European Group”

S, N, DK, NL

“Germanic Systems”D, A, CH,

Vetter 2002GR, I, IRE, NL,

GBB, P, A,E, F, D

N, DK, S, SF

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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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

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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The Two Dimensions of Local Autonomy in Western Europe

The range of locally performed functions: Local expenditure in % of total public spending (index E2)

100 80 60 40 20 0

Loc

al d

iscr

etio

n:

Loc

al t

axes

, fee

s, a

nd

ch

arge

s

in %

of

tota

l loc

al r

even

ue

(in

dex

R2)

100

80

60

40

20

0

GR

P

E

F

I A D B

LUX

IRE

GB NL

DK

SF

S

N

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

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Measuring Local Integrative Capacity

Majoritarian Local Government

SystemsMixed 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

councilBy the council

Composition of the local executive body

Major or clearly dominated

collective bodyunclear

Mainly proportionally

composed collective body

CountriesFrance, United Kingdom, Italy,

Greece

Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain

Finland, Netherlands,

Austria, Portugal, Ireland

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

Inst

itut

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afrt

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Are there structural factors that support locally socialized attitudes to be transferred to higher levels of government?

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

Inst

itut

für

Soz

ialw

isse

nsch

afrt

en (

SO

WI

I)

Are there structural factors that support locally socialized attitudes to be transferred to higher levels of government?

Ghent, June 2008 Dr. Angelika Vetter

Inst

itut

für

Soz

ialw

isse

nsch

afrt

en (

SO

WI

I)

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.