Democratic ideals and levels of political participation: The role of political and social conceptualisations of democracy
| Author | Marc Hooghe,Jennifer Oser |
| Published date | 01 August 2018 |
| Date | 01 August 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1369148118768140 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
768140BPI0010.1177/1369148118768140The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsOser and Hooghe
research-article2018
Original Article
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
Democratic ideals and levels
2018, Vol. 20(3) 711 –730
© The Author(s) 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148118768140
DOI: 10.1177/1369148118768140
The role of political and
journals.sagepub.com/home/bpi
social conceptualisations of
democracy
Jennifer Oser1 and Marc Hooghe2
Abstract
Concerns about democratic legitimacy in contemporary democracies bring new urgency to
understanding how citizens’ attitudes and ideals affect their political activity. In this article, we
analyse the relationship between citizens’ democratic ideals and political behaviour in the European
Social Survey’s 2012 uniquely extensive questions on these topics in 29 countries. Using latent
class analysis, we identify two groups of citizens who emphasise different citizenship concepts as
discussed by T.H. Marshall, namely, a political rights and a social rights conception. The multilevel
regression analyses indicate that those who emphasise social rights have relatively high levels of
non-institutionalised political participation, but are less involved in institutionalised participation.
In contrast, those who emphasise political rights are more active in all forms of participation. We
conclude by discussing the implications of the findings that, even in an era of economic austerity,
those who emphasise social rights are not the most politically active.
Keywords
democratic ideals, European social survey, latent class analysis, political and social citizenship,
political behaviour, T.H. Marshall
A vibrant debate is underway regarding how citizens’ assessment of their country’s demo-
cratic functioning has an impact on their political behaviour. A variety of studies indicate
that protest and non-institutionalised political participation are on the rise, particularly in the
wake of the economic downturn that began in 2008 and subsequent austerity measures
(Grasso and Giugni, 2016). Dissatisfaction with democratic functioning along with the rise
of populist sentiment has gained attention as important factors for understanding these
recent trends. Although this literature covers diverse aspects of democratic dissatisfaction,
1Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
2Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Corresponding author:
Jennifer Oser, Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Building 72,
Room 669, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel.
Email: oser@post.bgu.ac.il
712
The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 20(3)
it tends to share the theoretical presumption that citizens in contemporary democracies have
rather similar conceptions of what an ideal democracy would look like. Yet, whether citi-
zens do indeed share similar democratic ideals – and how these ideals may be related to
their political behaviour – has not yet been tested empirically. Considering the protest wave
following politics of austerity, one might assume that citizens who stress social dimensions
of democracy, such as fairness and economic quality, will be more likely to participate than
citizens who define politics mostly in strictly political and procedural terms.
The implications of this debate are of paramount importance in light of the evidence
that electoral participation has declined in recent years (Amnå and Ekman, 2014;
Dassonneville and Hooghe, 2018; Hooghe and Kern, 2017; McDonald, 2010), while
some forms of non-electoral participation are on the rise (Dalton, 2015; Theocharis and
Van Deth, 2018; Van Deth et al., 2007). Research on the determinants of these different
types of participation has reached new insights regarding associations with conceptions
of desirable behaviours of ‘good’ citizens (Bolzendahl and Coffé, 2013; Dalton, 2008;
Marien et al., 2010). Little is known, however, about the relationship between citizens’
conceptions of what is important in a well-functioning democracy and their patterns of
political behaviour, or about the precise mechanism connecting ideals and participation
behaviour. Concerns about democratic legitimacy in contemporary democracies have
brought new urgency to investigating the long-standing question of how citizens’ atti-
tudes and ideals shape their political activity (Levi et al., 2009; Magalhães, 2014).
This study aims to advance research on this topic by investigating whether citizens’
conceptions of democracy affect their political behaviour. More precisely, we test whether
citizens who hold distinct conceptions of democratic ideals also have distinctive corre-
sponding patterns of political participation. Given the recent concern about social policy
and inequality in Europe, it might be expected that citizens who place an emphasis on the
social responsibility of democracy would be more likely to protest against the politics of
austerity that has been pursued in recent years in numerous European countries. An
emphasis on social rights should thus be associated with a higher propensity to take part
in non-institutionalised forms of political participation.
We contribute to the ongoing debate by analysing the relationship between citizens’
democratic ideals and political behaviour in the European Social Survey’s (ESS) 2012
uniquely extensive battery of questions on citizens’ conceptions of ideal democracy in 29
countries (n = 54,673). Using latent class analysis (LCA), we identify two groups of citi-
zens who emphasise distinct citizenship concepts as already discussed in the seminal
work of T.H. Marshall (1950), namely, a political rights conception of democracy versus
a social rights conception. The identification of these distinctive democratic ideals chal-
lenges the prevailing approach which often assumes that citizens, on average, have the
same conception of what a democracy should look like.
In multilevel regression analyses, the findings indicate that the political rights group is
highly active in all types of political behaviour, while the social rights group is less active
overall. This finding means that those who place a high priority on social rights are less
active in raising their voice towards the political system. While this group emphasises pro-
tection from inequality and poverty as important for the functioning of democracy, appar-
ently this normative ideal does not lead to more political participation, even in the context
of the economic downturn that began in 2008 and the subsequent austerity measures in
European countries. We discuss the implications of these findings that even in an era of
economic austerity, those who emphasise social rights are not the most politically active and
therefore might not get their voice heard in the political decision-making process.
Oser and Hooghe
713
What affects political behaviour?
One of the most studied topics in political science is the question of what affects political
behaviour, including studies of resources, motivation and recruitment networks
(Schlozman et al., 2012; Verba et al., 1995); personality traits (Hibbing et al., 2013;
Mondak and Halperin, 2008); contextual factors such as income inequality and institu-
tional structures (Hooghe and Oser, 2016; Lister, 2007); and, most recently, online com-
munication and engagement (Cantijoch et al., 2016; Keating and Melis, 2017). Amid this
wealth of research on factors that affect political behaviour, empirical studies are surpris-
ingly silent on the relationship between democratic ideals and political behaviour – a
fundamental subject of theoretical inquiry in political science, dating back all the way to
Aristotle’s writings on political community.
Recent empirical research on the topic of how citizens’ conceptions of democracy
might affect how they engage with the political system focuses primarily on the effect of
citizens’ dissatisfaction with democracy, with ‘grievance theory’ predicting that this dis-
satisfaction motivates political engagement (Kriesi et al., 2012; Tarrow, 1994; Webb,
2013), while ‘critical citizens’ theory’ predicts political inaction or a focus on non-institu-
tionalised activity (Dahlberg et al., 2015; Klingemann, 1999; Norris, 1999). These
approaches are based on the idea that actors are likely to show behaviour that is congruent
with the values they themselves consider to be salient. Although the main claims of these
two theories stand in opposition in terms of their prediction of political behaviour, it is
noteworthy that both depart from a shared assumption that citizens on average have simi-
lar conceptions of what an ideal democracy should look like.
The empirical evidence for the assumption that citizens have similar democratic ideals,
however, is rather thin. Most often, research relies on standard questions about the way
democracy functions in the country of the respondent (Ariely, 2015). Some country-specific
research has indicated, however, that different democratic concepts can be identified among
citizens (Schedler and Sarsfield, 2007). The assumption that citizens’ concepts of democ-
racy are the same across nations clearly requires further investigation. This question, fur-
thermore, has become more salient given the increasing challenges...
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