The Governance and Politics of Social Problems (S_GPSP)
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Lecture 5: Referenda, migration and Euroskepticism
European elections are second order elections
- Regional elections
Always very low turn-out at European elections.
Exam essay question about voting patterns (age, gender)
Age gap in political participation
Same empirical pattern across all established democracies: very low turnout of youngest eligible
voters, followed by steep rise in young adulthood, followed by gradual increases until voters reach
their sixties.
Four broad explanations for age effects
1. Interests and preferences: younger citizens have less fixed or unclear sense of their own
current and future political interests. When you are in school, university, military service,
apprenticeship, living at home you less experience tax-effects and costs of public services or
other regulations. Over time, with career development these interests solidify.
2. Value formation fluidity: younger people may have less settled opinion and value-structures,
and also be less informed about how political parties differ on salient issues and values.
3. Gradual internalization of societal norms and maturation of adult roles: with responsibilities
of adulthood some social expectations to start a family, have a permanent residence, keep up
with the news and participate in civic life of the community.
4. Aging leads to changes in social networks and peer groups: peer pressure with family and
school in young adulthood may differ from pressures for civic engagement in professional
environment or from young peers that also lack electoral experiences. Over their life-cycle,
people may be from high turnout context to low turnout context. As citizens near the end of
their lives, frailty, illness and peer morality reduce the size of their network and reduce
political involvement.
, European integration
Does it undermine national democracy?
The transfer of policy-making powers from members states to EU raised serious concerns about
democratic legitimacy of European governance.
EU very unique
National level/member states: politics without policy heated political competition in elections,
but important policy decisions are increasingly made in Brussels.
European level: policy without politics important policy decisions are made but not shape by
competitive elections and party politics.
As a result, a lot of politicians blame Europe
Rejection of European integration
Exam question: what is the deepening and widening of Europe
Deepening: more policies are becoming developed in Brussels
Widening: more countries are joining the EU
No demos
Argument in favour of Europe: level of wealth, prosperity, economic growth is very high
Exam question input vs. output legitimacy
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