85 research outputs found
Islam, Religiosity, and Immigrant Political Action in Western Europe
Cataloged from PDF version of article.The issues of migration and immigrant political integration in western democracies have
become increasingly intertwined with debates on religion, particularly Islam. To date, however,
we have surprisingly little systematic research on how religious beliefs are related to
immigrants’ political engagement. In this study, we argue that religion has a capacity to
mobilize immigrants politically but the strength of this relationship depends on immigrant
generation, religiosity, and the type of religion. Using survey data collected as part of the
European Social Survey (ESS) 2002–2010 in 18 West European democracies, our analyses
reveal that religion is indeed linked to political engagement of immigrants in a complex
way: while belonging to a religion is generally associated with less political participation,
exposure to religious institutions appears to have the opposite effect. Moreover, we find
that, compared to foreign-born Muslims, second-generation Muslim immigrants are not
only more religious and more politically dissatisfied with their host countries, but also that
religiosity is more strongly linked to their political engagement. This relationship, however,
is limited to uninstitutionalized political action
How Might Reform of the Political System Appeal to Discontented Citizens?
In Britain, levels of political trust have declined, stimulating policy makers to explore ways of appealing to discontented citizens. One such initiative involves reform of the political system. Yet this raises the question of which types of political reform are likely to appeal to discontented citizens. Existing studies have examined how individuals respond to political reforms, yet these studies only consider a limited range of institutional changes. Scholars and policy makers thus know little about the popular appeal of a wider set of institutional reforms. Taking advantage of proposals for political reform in Britain, this article considers public reactions to a wide range of institutional changes. Using data from the 2011 British Social Attitudes survey, we find that direct democratic reforms are not the only changes that appeal to discontented citizens. Instead, policy-makers may also appeal to the distrustful via reforms that allow voters more control over their political representatives
The Endogenous Economy: ‘Real’ Economic Conditions, Subjective Economic Evaluations and Government Support
Islam, religiosity, and immigrant political action in Western Europe
The issues of migration and immigrant political integration in western democracies have become increasingly intertwined with debates on religion, particularly Islam. To date, however, we have surprisingly little systematic research on how religious beliefs are related to immigrants' political engagement. In this study, we argue that religion has a capacity to mobilize immigrants politically but the strength of this relationship depends on immigrant generation, religiosity, and the type of religion. Using survey data collected as part of the European Social Survey (ESS) 2002-2010 in 18 West European democracies, our analyses reveal that religion is indeed linked to political engagement of immigrants in a complex way: while belonging to a religion is generally associated with less political participation, exposure to religious institutions appears to have the opposite effect. Moreover, we find that, compared to foreign-born Muslims, second-generation Muslim immigrants are not only more religious and more politically dissatisfied with their host countries, but also that religiosity is more strongly linked to their political engagement. This relationship, however, is limited to uninstitutionalized political action. © 2013 Elsevier Inc
Single Cases or a Unique Pair? The Swiss and Norwegian 'No' to Europe
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7, Rome / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal
Public confidence in government: empirical implications from a developing democracy
This article explores the determinants of confidence in the Turkish government. We question whether confidence-related questions in mass surveys tap specific support for the incumbent government or tap diffuse support for government as a democratic institution. For this purpose, sociocultural, performance, and party explanations are tested. Four waves of the World Values Survey for Turkey are used as the data set. The article finds that performance and party-based explanations are the most relevant. Turkish citizens place greater emphasis on 'government as the incumbent' rather than on 'government as a democratic institution'. The analysis also reveals the changing influences of both performance and party-based explanations across time, which points to the significance of context. Through a cross-country analysis, the viability of the findings in the Turkish case are evaluated against those of other developing democracies
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