Los bienes relacionales y la resolución de la paradoja de la participación política

Relational goods provide a theoretical explanation for the puzzling fact that rational indi- viduals engage in collective action,including political participation.Relational goods facilitate provision of public goods, although they are not public goods themselves.A relational good only exists when non-anonymous others share the good, the «identity» characteristic, but these might not be specific individuals in direct contact. «Indirect» relational goods, shared with persons of a certain type, such as a certain social identity, can also increase participation. It remains theoretically problematic how well-defined the «other» must be for a relational good to exist.The indirect relational goods provide key opportunities for elites to mobilize participation.Support for the role of relational goods in collective action comes from substan- tial empirical work (using survey data and field experiments) examining the roles of publicity, group identification, and mobilization in increasing political participation.Relational goods provide a theoretical explanation for the puzzling fact that rational indi- viduals engage in collective action,including political participation.Relational goods facilitate provision of public goods, although they are not public goods themselves.A relational good only exists when non-anonymous others share the good, the «identity» characteristic, but these might not be specific individuals in direct contact. «Indirect» relational goods, shared with persons of a certain type, such as a certain social identity, can also increase participation. It remains theoretically problematic how well-defined the «other» must be for a relational good to exist.The indirect relational goods provide key opportunities for elites to mobilize participation.Support for the role of relational goods in collective action comes from substan- tial empirical work (using survey data and field experiments) examining the roles of publicity, group identification, and mobilization in increasing political participation.Los bienes relacionales ofrecen un marco teórico capaz de explicar el desconcertante hecho de por qué los individuos racionales participan en la acción colectiva, en la que se incluye la participación política. Los bienes relacionales facilitan la provisión de bienes pú- blicos, aunque estos no sean en sí mismos bienes públicos. Un bien relacional sólo existe cuando se comparte un bien con otros sujetos no-anónimos –la característica de «identidad»– pero estos podrían no ser individuos específicos en contacto directo. Bienes relacionales «indirectos», compartidos por personas de un determinado tipo, como puede ser una cierta identidad social, también pueden aumentar la participación. Sigue siendo una problemática teórica el saber cómo definir bien la figura del «otro» para que pueda existir un bien relacio- nal. Los bienes relacionales indirectos proporcionan oportunidades básicas para que las elites puedan lograr movilizar la participación. El apoyo del papel que desempeñan los bienes re- lacionales en la acción colectiva viene ratificado por un sustancial trabajo empírico (basado en encuestas y en trabajos de campo) que examina los papeles de la publicidad, de la identi- dad de grupo y de la movilización de una creciente participación política

Los bienes relacionales y la resolución de la paradoja de la participación política

Relational goods provide a theoretical explanation for the puzzling fact that rational individuals engage in collective action, including political participation. Relational goods facilitate provision of public goods, although they are not public goods themselves. A relational good only exists when non-anonymous others share the good, the «identity» characteristic, but these might not be specific individuals in direct contact. «Indirect» relational goods, shared with persons of a certain type, such as a certain social identity, can also increase participation. It remains theoretically problematic how well-defined the «other» must be for a relational good to exist. The indirect relational goods provide key opportunities for elites to mobilize participation. Support for the role of relational goods in collective action comes from substantial empirical work (using survey data and field experiments) examining the roles of publicity, group identification, and mobilization in increasing political participation.Los bienes relacionales ofrecen un marco teórico capaz de explicar el desconcertante hecho de por qué los individuos racionales participan en la acción colectiva, en la que se incluye la participación política. Los bienes relacionales facilitan la provisión de bienes públicos, aunque estos no sean en sí mismos bienes públicos. Un bien relacional sólo existe cuando se comparte un bien con otros sujetos no-anónimos –la característica de «identidad»– pero estos podrían no ser individuos específicos en contacto directo. Bienes relacionales «indirectos», compartidos por personas de un determinado tipo, como puede ser una cierta identidad social, también pueden aumentar la participación. Sigue siendo una problemática teórica el saber cómo definir bien la figura del «otro» para que pueda existir un bien relacional. Los bienes relacionales indirectos proporcionan oportunidades básicas para que las elites puedan lograr movilizar la participación. El apoyo del papel que desempeñan los bienes relacionales en la acción colectiva viene ratificado por un sustancial trabajo empírico (basado en encuestas y en trabajos de campo) que examina los papeles de la publicidad, de la identidad de grupo y de la movilización de una creciente participación política

Erwartungsbildung über den Wahlausgang und ihr Einfluss auf die Wahlentscheidung

Erwartungen über den Wahlausgang haben einen festen Platz sowohl in Rational-Choice-Theorien des Wählerverhaltens als auch in stärker sozialpsychologisch orientierten Ansätzen. Die Bildung von Erwartungen und ihr Einfluss auf die Wahlentscheidung ist dabei jedoch ein noch relativ unerforschtes Gebiet. In diesem Beitrag werden anhand von Wahlstudien für Belgien, Österreich und Deutschland verschiedene Fragen der Erwartungsbildung und ihrer Auswirkungen untersucht. Zunächst wird die Qualität der Gesamterwartungen analysiert und verschiedene Faktoren identifiziert, die einen systematischen Einfluss auf die Erwartungsbildung haben. Im zweiten Schritt wenden wir uns den Einzelerwartungen über verschiedene Parteien und Koalitionen zu und finden eine moderate Verzerrung zugunsten der präferierten Parteien und Koalitionen. Dabei kann gezeigt werden, dass der Effekt des Wunschdenkens mit dem politischen Wissen und dem Bildungsgrad abnimmt. Schließlich werden in einem letzten Schritt zwei unterschiedliche Logiken für die Auswirkungen von Erwartungen getestet, das rationale Kalkül des koalitionsstrategischen Wählens zur Vermeidung der Stimmenvergeudung sowie der sozialpsychologisch begründete Bandwagon-Effekt. Das Ausmaß an politischem Wissen scheint dabei eine zentrale vermittelnde Variable zwischen den beiden Logiken zu sein

The Impact of Perceived Representation on Latino Political Participation

Latinos are a large and growing portion of the US population but are less numerous among participants in politics than their numbers would suggest. Predictions of the future rates of participation among Latinos depend heavily upon understanding the causes of current rates. A substantial proportion of the disparity in participation rates between Latinos and non-Latinos can be accounted for by the numbers of noncitizens and by other factors related to a large pool of immigrants, differences in socioeconomic resources, and the young age distribution of Latinos. However, these summary statements obscure differences across types of participation. They also obscure differences across Latinos of different national origins. Much of the analysis done to date of the Latino National Political Survey (LNPS) has made clear that Puerto Ricans, Mexican-Americans, and Cuban-Americans can differ as much from each other as members of each group differ from non-Latinos. This paper uses the LNPS data to examine the factors related to different types of political participation among US Latinos of different national origins. Borrowing from the standard participation literature, we consider the impact of resources, engagement, and recruitment.The Latino population provides an especially useful case for testing hypotheses about the impact of mobilization upon activity. Political leaders have actively appealed to Latino ethnicity both in structuring political competition and in seeking support. I have proposed elsewhere that the success of such appeals in increasing participation will hinge in large part upon whether or not the targeted public believes itself well-represented by the leaders. The LNPS contains several items relevant to perceived representation. This paper will use the LNPS data to test the effect of perceived representation upon political participation, while taking account of the other factors that affect levels of activity

Designing and Implementing a Panel Study of Commuting Behavior: Lessons for Future Research

We have been collaborating in a panel study of commuter behavior in southern California which has been running since winter 1990. 1 We were interested in setting up a panel so that we could study the dynamics of commuting behavior, especially in a situation where the environment was changing (with, for example, road construction and new Air Quality Management District (AQMD) regulations). The present paper focuses upon the design and implementation lessons we have learned from this project, leaving substantive and econometric conclusions for other papers (see, e.g., Brownstone and Chu, 1992; Kim, 1992; and Brownstone and Golob, 1992). The survey instrument involves detailed reporting of the home-work-home trip chain, with summaries of general mobility and alternative choices for a recall period of two weeks. The survey also gathers information on attitudes concerning transportation, perceptions of incentives provided by employers to limit solo driving trips, past experiences with transit and ridesharing, and social, economic, and demographic questions

Designing and Implementing a Panel Study of Commuter Behavior: Lessons for Future Research

We have been collaborating in a panel study of commuter behavior in southern California which has been running since winter 1990. We were interested in setting up a panel so that we could study the dynamics of commuting behavior, especially in a situation where the environment was changing (with, for example, road construction and new Air Quality Management District (AQMD) regulations). The present paper focuses upon the design and implementation lessons we have learned from this project, leaving substantive and econometric conclusions for other papers (see, e.g., Brownstone and Chu, 1992; Kim, 1992; and Brownstone and Golob, 1992).The survey instrument involves detailed reporting of the home-work-home trip chain, with summaries of general mobility and alternative choices for a recall period of two weeks. The survey also gathers information on attitudes concerning transportation, perceptions of incentives provided by employers to limit solo driving trips, past experiences with transit and ridesharing, and social, economic, and demographic questions.Since this project was conceptualized as a pilot study, we have engaged in modifications more freely than we might otherwise. The details of the initial instrument design can be found in Golob and Golob (1989). While we did not carry out formal experimentation, we nonetheless believe that some things worked well while others created unforeseen problems. We discuss, first, construction of the sample, second, efforts to deal with attrition, third, modifications of the instrument, fourth, an attempt to obtain contextual measures, and, fifth, accounting and timing problems

Foundations of Latino Party Identification: Learning, Ethnicity and Demographic Factors Among Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Anglos in the United States

There is limited solid evidence on the determinants of partisan preference among Latinos in the United States. This study makes use of the Latino National Political Survey to explore the partisanship of Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Puerto Ricans on the mainland and, in comparison, that of non-Latino whites (Anglos). We particularly focus upon the relationships between learning, demographic factors and partisanship. Our national data generally validates the overall pattern of preferences found in more limited studies: strong Republican Party preferences among the Cuban-Americans and Democratic partisanship within the other two groups. We also find that the demographic correlates of preference vary substantially across these ethnic groups. One result that does hold for all three Latino groups is an increase in Democrat Party identification with experience of U.S. politics (as measured by age or time in the United States). This result supports a learning-theory view of Latino partisanship. We also find that those Latinos who are more integrated into their ethnic culture are more likely to support the party dominant for their group. When we turn our attention to factors that distinguish independents from partisans, we find fewer differences across groups. Higher education and older age tend to be associated with partisanship as has been found for the general US population. For both direction and independence, religion matters for Anglos and Puerto Ricans but not the other two groups. Finally, we examine strong versus weak attachment among partisans and again find age effects. This research demonstrates how learning theories of partisan identification can be elucidated by analyzing an understudied sub-population of Americans. It also underscores the importance of resisting the impulse of grouping all Latinos under a single heading in the study of their political behavior