scholarly journals Revisiting norms of citizenship in times of democratic change

Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 026339572110317
Author(s):  
Christian Schnaudt ◽  
Jan W van Deth ◽  
Carolin Zorell ◽  
Yannis Theocharis
Keyword(s):  
Public Support ◽  
Measurement Instrument ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Empirical Application ◽  
Good Citizen ◽  
Sustainable Future ◽  
Democratic Polity ◽  
Democratic Change ◽  
Citizenship Norms

Over the last two decades, scholars have investigated norms of citizenship by focussing primarily on ‘dutiful’ and ‘engaged’ norms. In the meantime, contemporary democracies have witnessed growing demands for more sustainable styles of living and increasing public support for authoritarian and populist ideas. These developments point to both a change and an expansion of conventional understandings and conceptions of what a ‘good citizen’ in a democratic polity ought to do. Specifically, they raise questions about whether demands for more sustainability and increasing support for populist ideas establish new facets of democratic citizenship, and if so, how they can be meaningfully incorporated into existing images of citizenship. This study provides a re-conceptualization of citizenship norms and empirically tests a new measurement instrument using original data collected in Germany in 2019. The empirical application of an expanded set of items demonstrates the existence of more variegated facets of norms of citizenship, including norms to safeguard a sustainable future and distinct populist facets emphasizing the relevance of trust in authorities and experts as well as reliance on feelings and emotions. Contemporary conceptions of citizenship thus go beyond conventional distinctions between dutiful and engaged norms of citizenship.

Why They Fight: How Perceived Motivations for Military Service Shape Support for the Use of Force

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald R Krebs ◽  
Robert Ralston ◽  
Aaron Rapport
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Good Citizen ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract What shapes public support for military missions? Existing scholarship points to, on the one hand, individuals’ affiliations and predispositions (such as political partisanship and gender), and, on the other hand, factors that shape a rational cost–benefit analysis (notably, mission objectives, the prospects for victory, and the magnitude and distribution of costs). We argue that public opinion is also shaped by beliefs about why soldiers voluntarily enlist. Using novel survey data and an experiment, deployed to a nationally representative sample of Americans, we test how four conceptions of soldiering affect support for a prospective military operation. We find, in observational data, that believing that a soldier is a good citizen or patriot bolsters support for the mission, while believing that a soldier has enlisted because he wants the material benefits of service or has “no other options” undermines support. These results support our causal argument: Americans’ attitudes toward military missions are shaped by their perception of whether the soldier has consented to deployment rather than by feelings of social obligation. This article has implications for debates on the determinants of public support for military missions and the relationship between military service and citizenship in democracies.

scholarly journals In Search of the Expressive Citizen

2020 ◽  
Vol 84 (S1) ◽  
pp. 257-283
Author(s):  
Daniel S Lane
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Marginalized Youth ◽  
Injunctive Norms ◽  
Political Expression ◽  
Good Citizen ◽  
Generational Changes ◽  
Citizenship Norms ◽  
Using Data

Abstract Scholars have often used generational changes in citizenship norms to theorize new forms of youth political expression on social media. Public opinion data has been employed to demonstrate that young people’s perceptions of what it means to be a “good citizen” (i.e., injunctive citizenship norms) have shifted toward models of citizenship that value self-expression. Yet several fundamental assumptions of this dominant image of the young “expressive citizen” remain untested. Using data from a national survey of young Americans (ages 18–24) collected during the 2018 US midterm election, the present study examines: a) if youth indeed view expression as a relatively important part of being a good citizen; and b) if injunctive norms concerning political expression are positively associated with engagement in political expression on social media. Findings indicate that injunctive expressive norms are distinct, but rated as the least important of all injunctive norms. Further, injunctive expressive norms were only modestly associated with social media political expression and difficult to empirically distinguish from what respondents viewed as personally important (i.e., personal expressive norms). While these findings challenge the way past research has theorized and measured the normative role of political expression among young people, they also reveal promising future directions. Specifically, the finding that traditionally marginalized youth place more normative value on political self-expression suggests an important next step for studying the expressive citizen in the age of social media.

Culture, Citizenship Norms, and Political Participation: Empirical Evidence from Taiwan

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
WEN-CHUN CHANG
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Asian Country ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
East Asian Country ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Good Citizen ◽  
Citizenship Norms ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Role Of Religion

AbstractThis study investigates the role of religion in shaping the norms of citizenship from a cultural perspective for an East Asian country that exhibits fundamental differences in social contexts from Western advanced democracies. Using data drawn from the Taiwan Social Change Survey, we find that the Eastern religions of Buddhism, Taoism, and Folk Religions are important for explaining the formation of the concept of being a good citizen. This study further examines the relationships between citizenship norms and various conventional and unconventional types of political participation. The empirical results herein suggest that duty-based citizenship and engaged citizenship have significant differences in their effects on political participation.

Socratic Citizenship. By Dana Villa. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. 370p. $65.00 cloth, $17.95 paper.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 815-816
Author(s):  
Gerald Mara
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Moral Reflection ◽  
Community Or ◽  
Good Citizen ◽  
Moral Individualism ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Times ◽  
Shared Commitment

The publication of Dana Villa's Socratic Citizenship coincides accidentally with recent events that have shaken and solidified American society. Yet the issues his book addresses are directly relevant to how a democratic society confronts such challenges. Villa investigates various forms of democratic citizenship and argues for a kind of civic activity that has been dangerously obscured within modern debates about democracy. Particularly within periods of regime stress, liberalism's good citizen who votes, pays taxes, and plays by the rules seems underequipped to meet the commitments the times require. The framework of the communitarians or the civic republicans wherein one discovers the value of “a shared commitment to something bigger than one's self… [endorsing a] life of community or civic engagement” (p. x) seems more helpful. Villa's concern is that this view of citizenship too easily enlists the community's members in projects of collective affirmation, while ignoring the importance of a critical rationality that asks skeptical questions about the content and the moral consequences of a politics driven by a “newly rediscovered sense of political membership” (p. x). In response, he rediscovers the possibility of a form of citizenship that places “intellectual doubt at the heart of moral reflection,” demanding not commitment but conscientiousness (p. xii). It is this form of citizenship that seems most compatible with moral individualism, and thus with the basic premises of democracy. He plausibly finds the origin of this kind of citizenship in the practices of Socrates as they are portrayed within the early Platonic dialogues, Apology,Crito, and Gorgias.

Religion and Democratic Citizenship: A Multilevel Examination

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Bolzendahl ◽  
Landon Schnabel ◽  
Rottem Sagi
Keyword(s):  
Religious Involvement ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Religious Attendance ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Democratic Engagement ◽  
Citizenship Norms ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Program Data ◽  
International Social

AbstractWe conduct a multilevel examination of the relationship between religiosity and democratic citizenship norms and behaviors using International Social Survey Program data. We analyze how democratic engagement varies according to individual and national average religious involvement in 28 predominantly-Christian democracies. We find that (1) individual-level religious attendance is positively linked to both what people say (norms) and what they do (participation); (2) nations with higher aggregate national attendance participate less politically; and (3) the relationship between individual-level religious engagement and citizenship varies by national religious context. More specifically, individual religious attendance matters more where it is more distinctive (i.e., in more secular countries). Individual-level religious participation is generally conducive to citizenship, but its impact is context-dependent.

The Impact of Social Media on Civic Engagement in China: The Moderating Role of Citizenship Norms in the Citizen Communication Mediation Model

2021 ◽  
pp. 107769902110571
Author(s):  
Lei Guo ◽  
Hsuan-Ting Chen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Citizenship Norms ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Impact

This study incorporates the examination of citizenship norms in testing the Citizen Communication Mediation Model (CCMM) in China, exploring to what extent online political expression mediates the impact of informational use of social media on offline civic engagement and how beliefs in citizenship norms moderate the CCMM. Results based on a two-wave panel survey among a national sample of 1,199 Chinese adults provide strong support for the CCMM in the Chinese context. In addition, embracing the democratic citizenship norm significantly enhances the CCMM effect, whereas embracing the pro-government citizenship norm that encourages pro-government speech does not show the same effect.

The Teaching of Citizenship

1984 ◽  
Vol 17 (02) ◽  
pp. 211-215
Author(s):  
Harvey C. Mansfield
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Good Thing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Good Citizen ◽  
Universal Love ◽  
The Way

The teaching of citizenship might seem inappropriate for a political scientist. Such teaching is normative, it might be said, but political science is empirical. And, it might be added, citizenship is a parochial concern for the good of one's own country, whereas political science is based on a universal love of truth. These objections will have to be made more precise, even recast; but insofar as they suggest that good citizen and good political scientist may not be the same thing, they are perfectly reasonable.The distinction between empirical and normative, or fact and value (which cannot be explored theoretically here), means that a political scientist, as political scientist, cannot tell citizens whether citizenship is a good thing, or say that political science is a good thing and ought to be welcomed or tolerated by citizens. A political scientist might perhaps remark empirically, or half-empirically, that love of one's country animates the citizens as citizen and love of truth inspires the political scientist as political scientist. But instead of leading to conflict between citizens and political scientists and hence to a problem for political scientists, who must be both, this observation is made to yield a queer harmony between the two. It is thought that since political scientists cannot pronounce upon the worth of citizenship, they do not get in the way of citizens. Their work is neutral to that of citizens. Love of truth does not interfere with love of country because all loves, being “values,” are incommensurable. Thus, the methodology of the fact-value distinction provides a lefthanded endorsement of (at least democratic) citizenship.

Life-Style Segmentation with Tailored Interviewing

1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wagner A. Kamakura ◽  
Michel Wedel
Keyword(s):  
Life Style ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Latent Class Model ◽  
Measurement Instrument ◽  
Class Model ◽  
Empirical Application ◽  
Future Studies

The authors present a tailored interviewing procedure for life-style segmentation. The procedure assumes that a life-style measurement instrument has been designed. A classification of a sample of consumers into life-style segments is obtained using a latent-class model. With these segments, the tailored interview procedure classifies consumers into the same segments in future studies. The procedure minimizes the error of misclassification and decreases the interview costs by using only a fraction of the items for each respondent. In an empirical application to a questionnaire designed to assess lifestyle related to the consumption of fashion, the authors obtain a classification that agrees with the full interview (i.e., using all scale items) for 73% of the respondents while using only 22% of all the questions in a traditional life-style battery.

The Influence of Citizenship Norms and Media Use on Different Modes of Political Participation in the US

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 805-823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Copeland ◽  
Jessica T Feezell
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Good Citizen ◽  
The Us ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Citizenship Norms ◽  
People’S Attitudes

Studies demonstrate that citizenship norms and media use are important predictors of political behavior. However, it remains unclear how norms and patterns of media use influence different modes of political participation—both directly and in tandem. Here, we leverage original US survey data ( N = 2200) to clarify how people’s attitudes about what it means to be a “good citizen” inform how they participate in politics, and whether certain types of media use moderate these relationships. In contrast to previous studies, we find that actualizing norms are associated with electoral, non-electoral, and individualized modes of political participation, but dutiful norms are not. In addition, although digital and traditional media use have distinct relationships with participation, there is little moderating influence. Collectively, these findings raise questions about whether the boundaries between dutiful and actualizing norms—and electoral and non-electoral participation, respectively—are still relevant in the contemporary media environment.

scholarly journals Democracy, accountability, and education

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meira Levinson
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Educational Standards ◽  
Accountability Measures ◽  
Democratic Polity ◽  
The One ◽  
Contemporary United States ◽  
Ongoing Support

Educational standards, assessments, and accountability systems are of immense political moment around the world. But there is no developed theory exploring the role that these systems should play within a democratic polity in particular. On the one hand, well-designed standards are public goods, supported by assessment and accountability mechanisms. They have the potential to serve democratic goods in particular, such as transparency, equality, and public discourse. On the other hand, their very potential to advance systemic democratic goods signals a level of reach and power that threatens the achievement of these same democratic values along other dimensions. This is especially evident in the contemporary United States. Adults’ democratically legitimate control over education within a democracy may well undercut children’s legitimate claims to receiving an education that equips them for democracy. Because the latter should trump the former, democratic goods are best achieved through embedding very limited educational standards, assessments, and accountability measures within an educational system that selects, trains, and provides ongoing support to civically engaged and thoughtful educators. Under such circumstances, they may promote a virtuous circle that builds capacity, motivation, and public support for strong and effective civic education practices, while still offering the adult public a strong democratic voice in public schools.

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