Linking Democratic Preferences and Political Participation: Evidence from Germany

Abstract

An extensive body of literature discusses the disaffection of citizens with representative democracy and highlights increasing citizens' preferences for political decision-makers beyond elected politicians. But so far, little research has been conducted to analyse the relations between citizens' respective preferences and their political behaviour. To address this void in the literature, our article investigates the extent to which citizens' preferences for certain political decisionmakers (politicians, citizens or expert) have an impact on their retrospective and prospective political participation. Our analysis draws on data from a survey conducted in autumn of 2014 on a probability representative sample in Germany. Results indicate that respondents favouring politicians as decision-makers focus mainly on voting. Those who favour citizens as decisionmakers are more willing to get involved in participatory procedures, while those inclined towards expert decision-making show mixed participation. Keywordsdemocracy, citizens' preferences, political decision-makers, political participation, Germany Accepted: 22 July 2016 Political scientists have examined the relations between political attitudes and actions for several decades (Almond and Verba, 1965;Bolzendahl and Coffé, 2013;Kinder and Sears, 1985), arguing that the two go in hand (Quintelier and Van Deth, 2014: 153). At the same time, citizens' disaffection with institutions and actors of representative democracy (Bengtsson, 2012;Dalton and Wattenberg, 2000;Font and Alarcón, 2011;Hibbing and Theiss-Morse, 2001;Norris, 2011) is leading to an increasing endorsement of political decision-makers beyond elected representatives. Some authors expect that these 'changing norms' might reinforce certain types of political action (Dalton, 2008: 78). But despite a rich debate in these fields, the question of how preferences for various political decisionmakers (politicians, citizens and experts) are linked with certain modes of political participation has just recently emerged. 25Social sciences have studied factors influencing citizens' political participation intensively. However, little is known whether and how their preferences, considering political decision-makers, are linked to their political involvement. Recently, more and more scholars are examining citizens' concepts of democracy as well as their preferences for certain political decision-making procedures or decision-makers. Yet these scholars were less interested in the effects of these preferences on citizens participation (Bengtsson and Christensen, 2014;Hibbing and Theiss-Morse, 2001). Our article aims to shed light on this connection and investigates how citizens' notions about who should make political decisions correlate with their involvement in different forms of retrospective and prospective participation. With this approach, the article bridges current debates on citizens' conceptions of democracy (Canache, 2012;Shin, 2015) with the established body of research on political participation....

Citizens' Contrasting Aspirations About Their Political System: Entrustment, Participation, Identification and Control

“…A growing share of the population supports the idea to give more opportunities to citizens to get involved in the political process, or even to make them the main policy-makers (Webb, 2013;Font et al, 2015;Bengtsson and Christensen, 2016;del Río et al, 2016;Gherghina and Geissel, 2017). Some studies focus on more specific instruments of participation, such as referendums (Bowler et al, 2007;Bengtsson and Mattila, 2009;Schuck and de Vreese, 2015;Bowler and Donovan, 2019), deliberative democracy (Neblo et al, 2010;Caluwaerts et al, 2018), or sortition to involve citizens or even replace politicians in the decision-making process (Bedock and Pilet, 2020).…”

Support for direct and deliberative models of democracy in the UK: understanding the difference

“…The flaws of contemporary representative democracies have determined citizens and politicians to look for alternatives. An extensive body of literature acknowledges the various demands of citizens and focuses on their preferences for alternative models of political decision-making (Hibbing and Theiss-Morse 2001;Esaiasson, Gilljam, and Persson 2012;Bengtsson and Christensen 2016;Gherghina and Geissel 2017). This coincides with a momentum gained by participatory institutions and procedures in real-life politics.…”

“…So far, the functioning and consequences of these two forms of participatory democracy have been intensely documented (Bengtsson and Mattila 2009;Webb 2013;Coffé and Michels 2014;Font, Wojcieszak, and Navarro 2015;Caluwaerts et al 2018). The preferences for different forms of participation have been explored and described in detail, with emphasis on trends, general meaning and relationship to political participation (Bengtsson and Christensen 2016; Gherghina and Geissel 2017;Landwehr and Steiner 2017). Several studies went one step further and sought to identify what triggers the demand for referendums as the most common form of direct democracy (Hibbing and Theiss-Morse 2002;Bowler, Donovan, and Karp 2007;Anderson and Goodyear-Grant 2010;Qvortrup 2014).…”

An Alternative to Representation: Explaining Preferences for Citizens as Political Decision-Makers

“…Germany is an appropriate context to investigate variables explaining citizens' preferences for decision-makers for several reasons (Gherghina & Geissel 2017). In terms of participatory behavior, Germany plays in the middle field compared with other EU member states (European Social Survey 2012).…”

“…Such an approach does not take into account the inconsistent preferences of citizens and they might, for example, endorse at the same time citizens, experts, and politicians as decision-makers. Citizens might declare to want more say in politics and, at the same time, to strive for more decision-making power for experts (Gherghina & Geissel 2017). To explain preferences for citizens as decision-makers, we want to include only consistent preferences.…”