Personal or Impersonal Evaluations? Political Sophistication and Citizen Conceptions of the Democratic Process

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Lauri Rapeli ◽  
Åsa von Schoultz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Political Sophistication ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Decision Making

Abstract An energetic scholarly debate discusses possible reforms of representative democracy. Some support participatory forms of democracy, others a more elite-driven or technocratic democracy. This study contributes to the growing literature on the subject by emphasizing political sophistication as a theoretically relevant predictor of attitudes to democracy: different models of democracy make different demands regarding the political sophistication of citizens. The analysis includes two dimensions and three measures of sophistication: personal sophistication measured as political knowledge and internal efficacy, and impersonal sophistication measured as assessment of others’ political competence. Using the 2011 Finnish National Election Study, we find that perceptions of the sophistication of others have a substantial impact on preferences for political decision-making, and that politically sophisticated people support representative democracy. The analysis shows that perceptions of others’ political competence, which has been largely neglected by previous research, is a both theoretically and empirically relevant predictor of preferences for political decision-making processes.

Ideals and Actions: Do Citizens’ Patterns of Political Participation Correspond to their Conceptions of Democracy?

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Åsa Bengtsson ◽  
Henrik Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Political Decision Making

The interest in procedures for political decision-making has grown tremendously during recent decades. Given the intense scholarly debate and the implementation of greater opportunities for citizen participation in many democracies, there has been surprisingly little interest in citizens’ conceptions of democracy understood as their preferences concerning the processes by which the political system works. Some recent attempts do, however, suggest that it is important to expand the study of public opinion from policy output to decision-making processes, and that there are coherent patterns in citizens’ expectations of the way in which political decisions come about. What is not clear, though, is whether citizens’ different conceptions of democracy have repercussions for how they engage in politics. Using the Finnish National Election Study of 2011 (Borg and Grönlund 2011), this article explores the relationship between citizens’ conceptions of democracy and patterns of political participation. Results demonstrate a distinct association between citizens’ ideals and the actions they take.

The Internet, Political Participation and Election Turnout: A Case Study of Germany's www.abgeordnetenwatch.de

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hartwig Pautz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
East Germany ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Decision Making

Germany's parliamentary democracy appears to be in crisis. The major parties' membership is in decline and barely existing in East Germany, election turnout is decreasing at all levels, and the reputation of politicians has never been worse. At the same time, however, Germans are more interested in politics than in the 1990s, overwhelmingly support democracy, and are keen on participating particularly in local political decision making. Out of this situation emerged www.abgeordnetenwatch.de— a website that aims to re-establish the link between electors and elected by allowing voters and representatives to communicate via a publicly accessible question-andanswer structure. This article addresses the questions of whether such an instrument can revitalize representative democracy and whether it has done so in the context of the 2009 federal elections.

scholarly journals The Importance Of Cooperation Between Local Representatives And Public Institutions In Management Decision-Making

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (09) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Makhsad Isabayev Bakhodirovich ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Management Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Political Decision Making

In this scientific article, international and national legislation on citizens decision-making processes has been investigated, to what extent is the importance of public control in the process of political decision-making, the implementation of citizens' participation in local government directly by itself or through elected representatives (political institutions). Also, practical proposals aimed at increasing the participation of public structures in decision-making were made.

Participatory Budgeting

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henriette I. Weber ◽  
Sebastian Vogt ◽  
Lisa-Marie Eberz-Weber ◽  
Holger Steinmetz ◽  
Sascha A. Wagner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Participatory Budgeting ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Participation Process ◽  
Political Decision Making

Consultative participation of citizens in political decision-making processes has been increasing in order to facilitate democratic legitimacy and responsiveness. Consequently, participatory budgets have been established as a 'best practice' for consultative participation of citizens in political decision-making processes. The authors compare participatory budgets of 31 German municipalities. An analysis of differences between successfully and unsuccessfully rated participatory budgeting processes provides informative insights and allows for in-depth comparison on a municipal level. The authors show that external service providers and electronic participation channels significantly increase the number of participatory citizens and are positively connected with pursued objectives of dialog processes and public responsiveness as well as efficient and effective decisions. Furthermore, the acceptance of all participants proved to be a key factor for a successful public participation process. The authors' analysis opens up new starting points for further research.

scholarly journals Retro Aesthetics, Affect, and Nostalgia Effects in Recent US-American Cinema: The Cases of La La Land (2016) and The Shape of Water (2017)

Arts ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Sabine Sielke
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Film History ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
American Cinema ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Political Decision Making

Nostalgia and retro are phenomena of modernism and modernization that are currently booming. This goes for political decision-making processes as much as for popular culture where retro aesthetics is the dominant mode of design: Both appear driven by ‘longings for a time that never was.’ While research on nostalgia and retro abound, nostalgia still remains a vague and undertheorized concept seemingly identical with retro. Engaging the ways in which Damien Chazelle’s 2016 movie La La Land and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water of 2017 produce and interrogate affects, this essay shows how film allows us to make distinctions that the proliferating research on nostalgia and retro often fail to deliver. As we zoom in on how both films reference iconic moments in film history, it becomes evident that retro aesthetics operates in distinctively diverse manners. While La La Land interrogates cinema’s “nostalgia for nostalgia”, The Shape of Water reclaims nostalgia as a mode of social bonding. In this way, both movies foreground how the dynamics of nostalgia, at best, moves forward, not back. Film studies, in turn, can shed considerable light on how both nostalgia and retro work—and why they sell so well.

scholarly journals The British Academy Brian Barry Prize Essay: Representing the Future: The Interests of Future Persons in Representative Democracy

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Santos Campos
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Distant Future ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Prize Essay

Abstract As a reaction against contemporary democracy's inherent short-sightedness in solving problems that are likely to affect distant future generations, there has been a recent increase in proposals for different kinds of democratic representation of future persons. This article shows that even though there can be no such thing as political representation of future persons, the relevant affected interests of the as-yet unborn can still be taken into consideration in political decision making. This aim is achieved by focusing on the political representation of children as special cases of semi-future members of the class of the represented.

scholarly journals Trends of Government Communications in Digital Public Sphere of Russia: 2011-2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-91
Author(s):  
O. G. Filatova
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
State Institution ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Federal Level ◽  
Internet Technologies ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Decision Making

The paper presents the results of two studies conducted in the early 2010s and early 2020th, which allow us to identify trends in the development of state communications in the digital public sphere of Russia. The studies were carried out on the same series using the same methods with some adjustments. The sites of all Russian public authorities at the federal level, as well as state communications in social media, were analyzed with an interval of 9 years. State communications are understood as communicative relations, the subject of which is the state as a whole, a state institution or a public authority, and which can be labeled as state PR. The subject of state communications is relations regarding the governing of state power. Comparing the results of two studies of state communications in Russia, the author analyzes the changes over the decade and draws conclusions about the active, but ineffective development of such communications that do not allow citizens to actively participate in political decision-making processes, as well as the ambiguous development of the digital public sphere of modern Russia in general. The wide interactive possibilities of modern social media which imply the priority of intermutual communication remain generally unclaimed. Despite the growth of channels, tools, services provided by modern Internet technologies, they are used by public authorities mainly for informational purposes only, without facilitating two-way communication with the population and therefore do not lead to a significant improvement in the image of power.

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