Year: 2008
Type: preprint
Abstract: Many studies show that political participation at the individual level is fragmented,\nmultidimensional and non-cumulative, but comparison of 22 nations in Europe shows that\ndifferent kinds of social and political participation at the country level are cumulative,\nunidimensional. The result is a set of country families of participation. Since these\ngenerally correspond with the country families found in studies of public policy, it raises\nthe possibility of still higher-level generalizations covering an even broader range of\nsocial, economic, and political country characteristics. Finally, this study explores various\ntheories explaining country patterns and families of participation and concludes that this is\nbest done by a reference to a single syndrome of country characteristics covering\ndemocratic and economic development, government effectiveness, low corruption, high\npublic expenditure on public personal services, and the rule of law. These factors seem to\nact as a mutually reinforcing system of cause and effects that are closely associated with\ncountry levels of participation of many different kinds.
Authors: Kenneth Newton, Heiko Giebler
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2128907659