Quality of Citizens Lecture 5 What if your country has bad citizens? •Democratic quality as citizen rule •Two ways that it can fail –Elites ignore citizens –Citizens rule badly •Most study of democratic quality focuses on first possibility, not second 1. Democratic quality & citizen quality Elite orientation of quality of democracy research •Field born out of sense that politicians rule badly – corrupt, self-interested •Munck’s survey shows five aspects of quality common in extant accounts –Only one focuses on citizens – elections and voting •Besides voter turnout little attention to citizens Suspicion of citizens common in classic political theory •Plato •Hobbes •Elite theorists: Michels, Mosca, Pareto •Marx and Gramsci •Even Mill and Tocqueville worry about tyranny of majority Recent wave of doubts about citizens •Trump •Brexit •Le Pen Related image Image result for le pen Ideal types Informed, rational citizens Uninformed, irrational citizens Responsive politicians Ideal democracy Populism Unresponsive politicians Unjustified autocracy Enlightened dictatorship or kleptocrat Civic virtue •But also long tradition of thinking about civic virtue •Civic virtue = disposition and ability to promote common good over private ends •What characteristics comprise civic virtue? Almond & Verba, Civic Culture •Parochial culture: little awareness of government and little involvement in politics •Subject culture: aware of government but are not active participants •Participant culture: citizens are both aware and active •A&V argue that mix of subject & participant best – need allegiance to system & not too much activism From Allegiant to Assertive Culture •Dalton & Welzel •Citizens have turned from allegiance to a more “assertive” posture to politics –More distrustful of politicians & institutions –More ready to confront elites with demands •More assertive societies perform better –More accountable and effective governance. 2. What are high quality citizens? Characteristics of high quality citizens? •Informed – factual knowledge •Unbiased – not systematically misinformed •Rational – Bayesian belief formation •Tolerant – accept social diversity •Participatory – engage in political action •Deliberative – engage in political debate Knowledge •Citizens should understand main actors, institutions, and issues in politics in order to vote and participate well •Debate about how much and what sort of knowledge necessary •Most studies find relatively low levels of factual knowledge Unbiasedness •Are citizens uninformed or misinformed? •Citizens shouldn’t hold false beliefs about political issues •Problems of motivated reasoning, conspiracy theories, false beliefs about vaccines, etc. •Is this too much to expect? –Very hard to change incorrect beliefs even if shown correct information Rationality •“Policy preferences are real, generally stable, form coherent patterns, and changes are sensible adjustments to new conditions and new information” •Good citizens as good Bayesians –When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? •Some evidence that public opinion mostly stable, but coherence less clear Tolerance •Citizens should recognize fact of social diversity and not engage in discrimination based on ascriptive traits •Helps avoid the problem of xenophobia and racist governments that have democratic support Participatory •Good citizens should participate in politics –Voting to make sure all interests taken seriously –Protests, petitions, etc. to keep politicians responsive between elections –Voluntary organizations to help government work more effectively •But biases –Extreme views overrepresented in these ways –What if citizens uninformed, misinformed? Deliberative •Good citizens should engage in political debate as equals, state public reasons for their views, and respond to arguments of others –Requires exposure to information and tolerance •Fishkin finds that engaging in deliberation changes and improves beliefs •Does it ask too much of citizens? •How to set up proper conditions for deliberation How do they go together? •Are they equally important or some more than others? •Complementarities •Knowledge connected with tolerance, interest in politics, participation, stable opinions •Tradeoffs •Tradeoff between participation and deliberation •Weak relationship between knowledge and misperceptions – very informed citizens also often misinformed • Hot and Cool Citizenship? Hot Citizenship Cool Citizenship Informed Unbiased Stable & coherent ideology Tolerant Participatory Deliberative Worries •Hot citizenship is standard path to political success – highly motivated, committed supporters of a cause –But also closed off to alternative POVs => leading to misinformation, lack of deliberation, and possibly even intolerance •Cool citizenship seems preferable –But are these people committed enough to win political battles? Measuring aspects of citizen quality using WVS, CSES Information Interest in politics; political knowledge questions; education Unbiasedness Belief in science? Information sources? Conspiracy beliefs? Rationality Measures of stability of opinion (cf., Page and Shapiro) Tolerance Most people can be trusted; People who would like not to have as neighbors Participatory Voting turnout; political action – protest, boycott, petition; membership in voluntary associations Deliberative Talk with friends and colleagues about politics; information sources; openmindedness 4. Conclusions Where should we advocate responsive politicians? •Worries about responsive politicians if citizens are uninformed, misinformed, irrational, intolerant •In these cases maybe retreat to a more minimal democracy of free elections and horizontal accountability But citizen quality not static •Citizens are endogenous – dynamic factors •How to improve citizen quality? –Civic education and general education –Economic prosperity => high SES => tolerance, participation, etc. –Agenda setting – responsibilities of politicians not to engage in populism, xenophobia, etc. –Media behavior to avoid misperceptions – no space for extremists, don’t repeat false claims, etc. Questions •Are these 6 characteristics the correct ones? •Measurement of citizen quality •Does citizen quality lead to better outcomes? •Where does citizen quality come from?