Transcript The impact of local associational life on citizens` attitudes towards

The impact of local
associational life on citizens’
attitudes towards local
government
Jacob Aars & Dag Arne Christensen
Putnam’s study of civic traditions in
Italian regions (1993)
 “Conditions for creating strong, responsive,
effective representative institutions”
 The vibrancy of associational life affects
institutional performance:
 The more associations within a community, the
more responsive and effective government
A contextual argument
 Context matters?
 Vibrancy of associational life:
 Contextual or compositional explanation
A multilevel analysis
 The argument for individual-level dependent
variables
 The effects of institutional performance feeds back
into the political system only through citizens’
perceptions
 Creates demands/support
Three dependent variables
 Effectiveness: Councillors’ knowledge about
local issues
 Effectiveness: Councillors’ ability to solve
problems
 Responsiveness: Councillors willingsness to
listen to citizens’ views
Data
 Individual level
 Largest ever Norwegian survey of citizen attitudes
towards public services and the political system
 12.659 respondents
 Municipal level
 The Central Coordinating Register for Legal
Entities (Brønnøysund Register Centre)
 Municipal-level data from the Regional Database,
Norwegian Social Science Databases
Results
Table X. Multi-Level regressions: Final models with individual- and municipal-level effects
Constant
Individual effects
Complain
Political interest
University education
Progress Party
Red-green parties
Male
Age
Income
Active resident org.
Active sports org.
Active unions
Active music org.
Active state church
Active other rel/livssyn.
Municipal effects
Number of organisations
Population (logged)
Number of parties
University education
Poverty
Knowledge
5.100****
Capacity
4.936***
Listen
5.015****
-0.490***
0.071***
-0.009
-0.274***
0.145***
-0.139***
0.008***
-0.007
-0.031
-0.006
-0.025
0.040
0.065*
0.249***
-0..481***
0.067***
0.002
-0.294***
0.197***
-0.146***
0.009***
-0.017**
-0.019
0.006
0.014
0.052
0.078**
0.195***
-0.481***
0.094***
0.068**
-0.352***
0.136***
-0.127***
0.007***
-0.000
0.006
0.027
0.037
0.076
0.041
0.235***
-0.212***
-0.166***
-0.164***
-0.153***
-0.107***
-0.135***
-0.098***
-0.124**
-0.118***
.0021***
0.016**
0.019***
0.004
-0.016
-0.005
Random effects (variance components)
Individual-level variance
1.890
1.841
1.948
Municipal-level variance
0.078
0.137
0.121
ICC
3.987
6.935
5.833
N Level-1
8170
8867
8890
N Level-2
408
410
409
Note: Table entries are maximum likelihood estimates. *** p< 0.01, ** p< 0.05, * p<0.10