Religious market structure and democratic performance : clientelism

Is there a connection between government intervention in religious competition and partisan clientelism in democratic systems? Drawing on the economics of religion, we argue that alongside commonly examined population-level religious processes (religious diversity), state-level religious processes (government regulation of competition in the religious market) affect institutional performance in electoral democracies. Linking comparative indicators of religion-state relations with measures of partisan clientelism, statistical analysis suggests that uncompetitive religious markets, such as those where a dominant religion is sponsored by the state, create incentives, infrastructures and opportunities that favour clientelism. The study emphasises the importance of light-touch regulation of religion not merely as a normative principle narrowly related to religious freedom, but also as a potential remedy that can enhance the quality of political institutions

Globalization, religiosity and vote choice : an empirical test

Building on recent research that examines the impact of globalization in domestic political behaviour, particularly on economic voting, this chapter proposes that globalization strengthens the influence of religiosity on individual voting decisions (the ‘religious vote’ or ‘religious voting’). It further hypothesizes that the effect of globalization on the religious vote depends on the structure of the religious economy: some religious contexts will be more fertile settings for religious voting. The analysis combines individual-level data from CSES Module 2 (2001-2006) with two types of country-level information: globalization indices and a measure of the religious context. The main finding is that globalization strengthens the link between religiosity and right-wing party choice. This effect can be interpreted as an anti-globalization backlash that takes place within a shrinking pool of religious voters. The findings contribute to our understanding of a hitherto ignored relationship between globalization and the non-economic foundations of political behaviour

Satisfaction with democracy and voter turnout

Numerous studies conclude that countries in which citizens express higher levels of satisfaction with democracy also tend to display higher levels of voter turnout in national elections. Yet it is difficult to draw causal inferences from this positive cross-sectional relationship, because democracies feature many historical, cultural, and institutional differences that are not easily controlled for in cross-sectional comparisons. We apply an alternative, temporal approach to this issue by asking the question: Are over-time declines (increases) in aggregate levels of satisfaction within democracies associated with increases (declines) in levels of voter turnout within these democracies? Our temporal analysis of this relationship in 12 democracies over the period 1976–2011 reveals a pattern that is the opposite of that suggested by previous cross-sectional studies: namely, we find that over-time increases in citizens’ satisfaction with democracy are associated with significant decreases in voter turnout in national elections in these countries. </jats:p

Corruption Voting and Political Context: Testing the Micro Mechanisms

The electoral consequences of individual perceptions of corruption are an important component of political accountability. In this paper I am concerned with what drives variation in corruption voting across countries. While the accountability through elections mechanism is frequently assumed as a force that connects party system and levels of corruption, this mechanism is rarely tested at the individual level. I argue here, and findings suggest that it is so, that features of the party system related to clarity of responsibility in terms of policy outputs and stable system features such as plurality electoral rules might prime corruption as an issue in voting calculations. I test these expectations with individual level survey data from Module 2 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems

Party System Polrisation and Quality of Government: On the Political Correlates of QoG

The Quality of Government (QoG) research program has to date justified the importance of political context in the form of party system type, electoral rules, and political fractionalization for understanding variation in QoG. Arguments about social fragmentation (be that ethnic, class or racial) are also related to governmental outcomes. I propose to contribute to this research program by examining the relationship between party system polarization, as measured by the variation of par-ties’ policy positions (VPP), and quality of government. I argue that party system polarization can explain short and medium term intra-country variation in QoG. Specifically, party system polarization should decrease QoG. My theory suggests two reasons for this expectation. First, party system polarization increases incentives for partiality by the bureaucracy and government institutions, and this has subsequent implications for state efficiency. Second, political consensus enhances cooperation among political actors, and thus the government’s ability to pursue beneficial reform strategies. Findings suggest that this effect is present but conditional upon a country’s experience with democracy

European Parliament Election Study 2009, Media Study

The European Parliament Election in the Media. Topics: Newspapers: page number on which the story begins; section; type of story; number of photographs, visuals belonging to the article; length of newspaper story; total number of pages in political/news section, editorial section and business or economy; begin of the article on top half of the page or lower half of the page, television: length of TV news item; story number (position within the overall news cast); television and newspaper: topic of the story: European integration, globalization, environment, national economic conditions; item contains an evaluation of the change of national economic conditions over the past 12 months; effect of national government or EU governance on national economic conditions; mainly responsible for working on economic conditions (actually and preferred); corresponding questions concerning immigration, change in interest rates, health care, climate change; main location of the story in terms of prominence; current national government is mentioned and evaluated in the story; European Union, its institutions or policies or the European Parliamentary elections or the campaign is mentioned in the story. Actors: detailed information up to 6 different persons, groups or organizations (for instance times the actor is directly quoted or shown on photography or film). EU specific topics: up to five EU-specific topics: topic discussion, topic-relevant information, developing of topic in terms of good or bad; story evaluates the EU, the European Parliament, the potential enlargement of the EU, the potential membership of Croatia, Switzerland and Turkey; story contains factual information about: the total number of member states in the EU, number of representatives, the rotation of the presidency of the Council of the European Union, the minimum age limit for standing as a candidate for the national general elections, the total number of MPs in the national parliament, the number of seats of the European Parliament after the 2009 election; story mentions aspects related to the state of democracy in the EU; evaluation of these aspects; referendums on EU integration: supportive or not; two or more sides of an issue mentioned; conflict or disagreement mentioned; personal attack between actors; EU-country reproaches (blames, criticizes the European Union or the European Commission); benefits or disadvantages from the EU; numbers, figures or statistics that indicate the benefits or disadvantages from the EU; negative reference to a particular distance between the EU and its citizens; positive reference to the responsiveness of the EU towards its citizens; contrasts between the position of elites and the position of the general public; criticism from the perspective of the citizens. European Parliamentary Elections and campaign: story is about the European Parliamentary Elections and/or the campaign; opinion poll results mentioned; country where newspaper or TV broadcast comes from; expected performance of the parties in the European Parliamentary elections; story mentions interviews of persons in the street (vox populi); mentioning of actors as ´winners´ or ´losers´; kind of presentation and style; story mentions a strategic move with a certain motivation; metaphors from the language of games, sport and/or war are used in the story; EP election campaign is boring or exciting; turnout in the European Elections in one´s country; people interested in campaign; story mentions aspects relating to the role of the media and to publicity efforts of political actors or campaigns towards the media. Additionally coded: Coder ID; story identification number; date, month and news outlet. Additional country specific variables are included in the national datasets.Darstellung der Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament in den Medien. Themen: Zeitungen: Seitennummer, auf der der Artikel beginnt; Abschnitt; Art des Artikels; Anzahl der zu dem Artikel gehörenden Fotografien und Grafiken; Länge des Zeitungsartikels; Gesamtzahl der Seiten im politischen Nachrichtenteil, im redaktionellen Teil und im Wirtschaftsteil; Beginn des Artikels auf der oberen Hälfte oder auf der unteren Hälfte der Seite, Fernsehen: Länge des TV-Beitrags; Position innerhalb der gesamten Nachrichten; Fernsehen und Zeitung: Thema des Beitrags: Europäische Integration, Globalisierung, Umwelt, nationale wirtschaftliche Fragen; Bewertung der Veränderung der nationalen Wirtschaftslage in den letzten 12 Monaten; Einfluss der nationalen Regierung oder der EU Regierung auf die nationalen wirtschaftlichen Bedingungen; Verantwortlichkeit für Wirtschaftsfragen (tatsächlich und präferiert); entsprechende Fragen zur Einwanderung, Veränderung der Zinssätze, Gesundheit und Klimawandel; Positionierung des Beitrags im Sinne von Prominenz; Erwähnung und Bewertung der aktuellen nationalen Regierung; Erwähnung der Europäischen Union, ihrer Institutionen und Politik, der Europäischen Parlamentswahlen oder der Wahlkampagne; Akteure: detaillierte Informationen für bis zu 6 verschiedene Personen, Gruppen oder Organisationen (z.B. Häufigkeit mit der der Akteur direkt zitiert oder auf Fotografie oder Film gezeigt wird). EU-spezifische Themen: bis zu fünf EU-spezifische Themen: Thema diskutiert, themenrelevante Informationen, die Entwicklung des Themas im Sinne von gut oder schlecht; Bewertung der EU, des Europäischen Parlaments, der potentiellen Erweiterung der EU, der Möglichkeit eines Beitritts von Kroatien, der Schweiz und der Türkei; Beitrag enthält sachliche Informationen über: die Gesamtzahl der Mitgliedstaaten in der EU, die Anzahl von Parlamentsmitgliedern, die Rotation der Präsidentschaft des Rates der Europäischen Union, das Mindestalter als Kandidat für die nationalen Wahlen, die Gesamtzahl der Abgeordneten im nationalen Parlament, Zahl der Sitze des Europäischen Parlaments nach der Wahl 2009; Zustand der Demokratie in der EU; Bewertung dieser Aspekte; Referenden über EU Integration: unterstützend oder nicht; zwei oder mehr Seiten eines Problems erwähnt, Konflikte oder Meinungsverschiedenheiten erwähnt; persönlicher Angriff zwischen Akteuren; Vorwürfe eines EU-Landes (beschuldigt, kritisiert die Europäische Union oder die Europäische Kommission); Vorteile oder Nachteile durch die EU; Zahlen, Zahlenmaterial oder Statistiken, die die Vorteile oder Nachteile aus der EU zeigen; negative Bezugnahme auf eine Distanz zwischen der EU und ihren Bürgern; positive Bezugnahme auf die Reaktionsfähigkeit der EU gegenüber den Bürgern; Kontrast zwischen der Position von Eliten und der Position der breiten Öffentlichkeit; Kritik aus der Perspektive der Bürger. Europawahlen und Wahlkampagne: Beitrag behandelt die Europawahlen bzw. die Wahlkampagne; Meinungsumfrageergebnisse erwähnt; Herkunftsland der Zeitung oder TV-Sendung; erwartetes Abschneiden der Parteien bei den Europäischen Parlamentswahlen; Beitrag erwähnt Interviews von Personen auf der Straße (vox populi); Erwähnung von Akteuren als ´Gewinner´ oder ´Verlierer´; Präsentationsart und Stil; Beitrag erwähnt einen strategischen Schritt mit einer bestimmten Motivation; Verwendung von Metaphern aus der Sprache des Sports bzw. von Kriegen; EP Wahlkampf wird als langweilig oder spannend bezeichnet; Wahlbeteiligung an den Europawahlen im eigenen Land; Interesse der Menschen an der Wahlkampagne; Beitrag erwähnt Aspekte im Zusammenhang mit der Rolle der Medien und die Bemühungen der politischen Akteure um Publizität oder Kampagnen gegen die Medien. Zusätzlich verkodet: Coder-ID; Datum; Name des Mediums. Zusätzliche länderspezifische Variablen sind in den nationalen Datensätzen enthalten