DSPO 25A10 - Citizen Politics and Democracy in Times of Crisis

This course explores the role of the citizen within contemporary democratic processes. It draws on insights from political sociology and comparative politics to answer essential questions regarding continuity and change on issues such as vote choice, political participation, public protest, trust in the political system, ideological orientations and political attitudes. Special emphasis is placed on the impact of the different crisis on the changing preferences and behaviors of mass publics across Europe and the global world also. The effects of these changes on the patterns of political trust, with the emergence of “distrusting democrats” as a structural element of democracy on today, will be studied in the last third of the course. The course also aims to develop the students' analytical skills in comprehending current political events, public opinion, new social movements and current electoral dynamics from a comparative perspective. Each session of the course will draw on theoretical concepts and link them to empirical findings using comparative, time-series survey data. Students will be invited to critically combine theoretical tools with empirical evidence to comprehend the dynamic link between public opinion and political parties in postmodern Western democracies.
Bruno CAUTRES
Séminaire
English
No prerequisites are required for this class.
Autumn 2024-2025
Grades will be determined by : a) an essay of 4000 words (60%) ; two quizzes (40%)
What is the main perspective of the course? Definitions, main concepts and approaches presented in this course. What is a citizen politics perspective ?
Jost and Sidanius, Appendix: How to Read a Journal Article in Social Psychology (Jordan and Zanna 1999).
Dalton, Russell. 2000. Citizen Attitudes and Political Behavior. Comparative Political
Class 2: Political culture and political orientations
Dalton, Russell. Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Western Democracies. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House (Introduction)
Class 2: Political culture and political orientations
What is political culture? How can history help us understand current political formations?
Putnam, R. (1993). Making Democracy Work. New Jersey : Princeton University Press, pp. 167-185
(*) Almond, G. A. (1989). The civic culture: Political attitudes and democracy in five nations. London : Sage, chapter 1.
Class 3: Political participation: Conventional modes of participation and the new protest movements
Is there an erosion of conventional' forms of participation (voting, party membership, civic engagement)? Are there new forms of civic participation? Are repertoires of collective action mixing old and new forms of actions?
(*)Norris, P. (2009). Political activism: New challenges, new opportunities.' Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics Edited by Carles Boix and Susan Stokes (Oxford University Press)*.
Rüdig, W., & Karyotis, G. (2014). Who protests in Greece? Mass opposition to austerity. British Journal of Political Science, 44(03), 487-513.
Class 4: Postmaterialism and support for democracy
How is support for democracy shaped by political culture? How has the economic crisis affected support for democracy across Europe?
Inglehart, Ronald. 2003. How Solid is Mass Support for Democracy and How Do We Measure It?' PS: Political Science and Politics.
Cordero, G. and S, Pablo. 2015. Economic Crisis and Support for Democracy in Europe, West European Politics.
(*)Inglehart, R. F. (2008). Changing values among western publics from 1970 to 2006. West European Politics, 31(1-2), 130-146.
Class 5: The context and meaning of left-right orientations
Are European citizen less mobilized and less identified by spatial notions like the left and the right?
Piurko, Y., Schwartz, S. H., & Davidov, E. (2011). Basic Personal Values and the Meaning of Left‐Right Political Orientations in 20 Countries. Political Psychology, 32(4), 537-561
Lewis Beck et al. The American Voter revisited, chap. 10.
(*)Russell J. Dalton. 2008. Citizen Politics: Public opinion and political parties in advanced industrialized democracies. Washington DC, CQ Press. Chap. 6
Class 6: The weakening of the social basis of politics: is there still a class voting or a religious voting ? How to explain the decline of traditional basis of politics ?
Are traditional social cleavages weakening or being reinvented as cues' for voting behavior and party choice? Is there a crisis of political mediations due to this weakening? Are citizens still expressing political demands based on sociological belonging
(*)Mayer, N. (2009). What remains of class voting?'. In Perrineau, P. and L. Rouban. Politics in France and Europe. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 167-182*.
Evans, Geoffrey. 2000. The continued significance of class voting.' Annual Review of Political Science 3, pp. 401‐417.
Mayer, N. The Electoral impact of the crisis on the French working class: more to the right? In Bermeo, Nancy and Bartels, Larry M (eds.). Mass Politics in Tough Times. Opinions, Votes, and Protest in the Great Recession :New York : Oxford University Pre
Russell J. Dalton. 2008. Citizen Politics: Public opinion and political parties in advanced industrialized democracies. Washington DC, CQ Press, chap. 7 and 8
Class 7: Partisanship party politics: are party attachments in decline? Is it the end of political parties ?
What is party identification and what is its relevance for understanding political behavior nowadays?
(*)Russell J. Dalton. 2008. Citizen Politics: Public opinion and political parties in advanced industrialized democracies. Washington DC, CQ Press, chap. 9.*
Clarke, Harold, and Marianne Stewart. 1998. The decline of parties in the minds of citizens.' Annual Review of Political Science 1: 357-78.
Converse, Philip. 1964. The nature of belief systems in mass publics.' In David Apter, eds. Ideology and Discontent. New York: Free Press.
Class 8 : Changing patterns of political mobilization and new forms of political activism
What are the new forms of political activism on today? Are citizens only motivated by short-term causes rather than long-term ideological loyalties?
(*) Pippa Norris. Political activism: New challenges, new opportunities. In : Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, Edited by Carles Boix and Susan Stokes (Oxford University Press)
Class 9: Patterns of Political Trust and Mistrust
What is political trust? why so many uses of this concept in modern political science research ? What are the different dimension of political trust and its different patterns? Do context matter, either institutional or political, socio-economic? And can
(*)Schraff, D. (2021), Political trust during the Covid-19 pandemic: Rally around the flag or lockdown effects?. European Journal of Political Research, 60: 1007-1017
van der Meer, T. (2017, January 25). Political Trust and the Crisis of Democracy. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics
Class 10 : Distrusting democrats ?
What kinds of citizens enrich democracy? Recent research focuses on "distrusting democrats" or "critical citizens" who "share widespread aspirations to the ideals and principles of democracy" and "adhere strongly to democratic values" but who distrust hi
(*)Geissel, Brigitte. 2008. Reflections and findings on the critical citizen: Civic education—What for? European Journal of Political Research 47:34-63.
Ryan E. Carlin. Distrusting Democrats and Political Participation in New Democracies: Lessons from Chile. Political Research Quarterly , September 2011, Vol. 64, No. 3, pp. 668-687
Class 11 : Changing patterns of political trust : Europe and globalization as new sources of political cleavages and distrust ?
What is the Hans-Peter Kriesi contribution to the winners vs losers of modernization conflict? How citizen are affected by EU integration and globalization? Who are the winners and the losers? How political parties evaluated in their policies choices and
(*)Grande, E., Lachat, R., Dolezal, M., Bornschier, S., & Frey, T. (2008). West European politics in the age of globalization (pp. 154-182). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., chapter 1.
Mayer, N., Rovny, A., Rovny, J. & N. Sauger. (2015). Outsiderness, Social Class and Votes in the 2014 European Elections', European Journal of Social Sciences, 53 (1): 157-176*.
Class 12: General conclusions : Citizen politics in the age of the epidemic