Adobe Systems Obrázok, na ktorom je text, snímka obrazovky, kruh, diagram Automaticky generovaný
popis


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Position paper deadline
27.10.2024 23:59
•3 topics -> you choose one
•5-6 pages -> 1800 signs=1 page
•Your argumentation as a core skill for the paper
•Secondary sources also needed
•10 points
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…also document for case study
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/120jDtv1CNVuucEm1CLkToAEbQoWfiOKQDTKrcn57J44/edit?usp=sharin
g

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Other forms of political participation –
referenda, protests, petitions
Jakub Jusko

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Political participation
“Activity that has the intent or effect of influencing government action – either directly by
affecting the making or implementation of public policy or indirectly by influencing the selection
of people who make those policies” (Verba et al. 1995, 38).
“Action by ordinary citizens directed
toward influencing some political outcomes” (Brady 1999, 737)
1)Electoral participation
2)Consumer participation
3)Protest activity
4)Party activity
5)Contact activity (Teorell et al. 2007)

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Obrázok, na ktorom je text, snímka obrazovky, potvrdenie, číslo Automaticky generovaný popis
Ekman and Amna, 2012

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•Referendums as Direct Democratic Expressions of Electoral Behaviour
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•Demonstrations as Expressions of Political Dissatisfaction and Mobilization
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•Petitions as Low-Cost Political Engagement Complementing Elections

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Political participation
          Referendums
•
Factors (X) Demonstrations Outcomes (Y)
Petitions

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Referendums

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Referendum
•The main tool of direct democracy in presence (increase in recent decades)
•Origin in Switzerland in 13th century
•Mechanism which allows citizens to express their attitude on a specific question mostly by either
a „yes“ or a „no“ vote
•Similar attributes as elections – universal suffrage, secret vote, equal weight of votes etc.
•Different characteristics to elections – quorum rules, turnout fluctuation, contextuality
•Different motivations of the actors involved
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•

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Year
Topic
Turnout
Result
1
1994
Privatization
19,96
Not valid
2
1997
NATO / President
9,53
Not valid / marred
3
1998
Strategic companies
44,25
Not valid
4
2000
Early elections
20,03
Not valid
5
2003
EU
52,15
Valid – yes
6
2004
Early elections
35,86
Not valid
7
2010
Various
22,84
Not valid
8
2015
Family
21,41
Not valid
9
2023
Early elections
27,25
Not valid
Example - Slovak referendums

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Who participates in referendums?
•Switzerland (Geneva canton): (Goldberg and Sciarini, 2023)
-Individual-level (age + past participation)
-Contextual factors: importance of the issue, complexity
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•Netherlands: (van Egmond et al. 1998)
-Individual characteristics (education, interest) are dependent upon contextual factors (importance
of the issue)
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Similar turnout behaviour than in regular elections
BUT
Crucial role of referendum importance and political (government) parties in determining the
referendum behaviour

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Brexit Has Happened And Here Are The 30 Funniest Memes | Bored Panda
Vote choice in referendums:
1) personal attitudes
2) role of political parties and mobilisation
3) role of question framing
Apartheid Rock Obrázok, na ktorom je text, písmo, snímka obrazovky Automaticky generovaný popis
Obrázok, na ktorom je text, písmo, biely, algebra Automaticky generovaný popis

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Rudolph 2020 and occasional voters in Brexit
Obrázok, na ktorom je text, snímka obrazovky, rovnobežný, rad Automaticky generovaný popis

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Positives and negatives of referendum?

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Positives and negatives of referendum?

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Demonstrations

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Black Lives Matter Fights Disinformation To Keep The Movement Strong : NPR After Arab Spring, a
decade of upheaval and lost hopes | AP News Turnout in French 'yellow vest' protests falls to
lowest yet - The Japan Times The Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Movement: An Introduction – East Side
Freedom Library

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Demonstrations
•Unconventional political participation -> aiming to influence politics through
non-institutionalised means (not electoral arena)
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•More open act of political engagement that involves a relatively high amount of time commitment
(compared to petitions)
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•More of political reasons (boycotts more ethical)
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•More impactful for protesters when protesting locally (vs. large-scale) (Wallace et al. 2014) –
immigration rights in the US
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•More impactful for overall support when done non-violently (Shuman et al. 2024)

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Demonstrations effects
Obrázok, na ktorom je text, snímka obrazovky, písmo, diagram Automaticky generovaný popis

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Who participates in demonstrations?

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Petitions

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Petitions
•Unconventional political participation -> aiming to influence politics through
non-institutionalised means (not electoral arena)
•
•Low-risk form of political engagement that involves a relatively low amount of time commitment
(Low-cost activity)
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•Signalling of issues to parties -> campaigning (before elections), policy outcomes
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•Highlight limitations of electoral participation (but scepticism of MPs -> UK)
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•Educative effect -> increase turnout in irregular US (compared to habitual) voters (Parry et al.
2012, Harper and Parry, 2023)
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Who participates in petitions?
•Stockemer (2014) -> World Values Survey (2009) – 39 countries
- Education
- Membership in civil society organisations
-Voting
-Dissatisfaction with the government
-Age!
-Women (opposite to demonstrations)
-Income
-Democratic experience (of a country) (also boycott)
-Economic development (of a country)
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Couture and Breux (2017)
- Poor mental health associated with higher online petitions signing
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Who participates in petitions?
•Merita Ulo et al. (2019) (E-petitions)
- High altruism, positive attitude towards e-petitions, credible e-petition initiators increase
probability of signing e-petition
•Freyemayer and Johnson (2010) – environmental actions
- Respondents living in wealthier countries, no matter the environ-
mental quality, more frequently join environmental groups, sign petitions concerning the
environment, and give money for environmental causes
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Petition Simulation: Craft Your Cause
•Objective: Illustrate the process and impact of petitions.
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•Instructions: 3-5 minutes to think of a political or social issue you are passionate about. Create
a short petition statement (1-2 sentences) that they would use to gather support for their cause ->
try to make it effective
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•Wrap-up: How petitions—especially online petitions—mobilize people and keep issues on the
political agenda?

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How to write an effective petition?
•Setyoko et al. (2022)
1) the way of communication in which there is a linguistic approach is an important factor that
influences how information from the petition is conveyed to the public and leads to the publicity
of the petition.
1)
2) the way of delivery is the basis for how the voice of the community is conveyed to policymakers,
which is influenced by the political will of a region.
3) media attention is a factor between the two scopes, which have dual roles as a “toa” to the
public, and a messenger of policy.
•Trending petitions are gaining support more rapidly (UK)
•More positive emotions (Change.org petitions study)
•Credible e-petition initiators (Merita Ulo et al. 2019)

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Obrázok, na ktorom je text, snímka obrazovky, písmo, potvrdenie Automaticky generovaný popis
How to write an effective petition?
Kim et al. 2024

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Obrázok, na ktorom je text, diagram, rad, rovnobežný Automaticky generovaný popis

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Activity
Your activity in other forms of participation

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How to increase participation?
•We cannot dictate the person to be involved in the politics
•We (often) cannot change peoples SES and personality traits
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•Education programmes for increasing political sophistication:
-The Political Engagement Project (USA) – boost of many dimensions of democratic participation and
identity (mostly with lower interest) +  increase in political knowledge and skills (mostly with
higher interest) (Beaumont et al. 2006)
-Civic education (Norway) – importance of enhancing self-efficacy in the political field (compared
to civic competence)
ÞPolitical knowledge as a good predictor of civic competence (less on motivation)
ÞSelf-efficacy as a predictor for motivation which increases participation ------à
Obrázok, na ktorom je text, písmo, snímka obrazovky Automaticky generovaný popis

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Summary of the first lecture block
•Increase in the number of other participation activities in recent decades
•Different techniques for different occasions
•Different types of socio-economic groups participating in offline-online activities
•The role of (not)sophisticated undecideds and non-voters in political outcomes
•Seemingly unrelated factors and mechanisms hidden behind them (rain, sleep, long-lines,…)
Obrázok, na ktorom je text, potvrdenie, snímka obrazovky, číslo Automaticky generovaný popis

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Next…
30 Voting Memes to Remind You to Exercise Your Rights - SayingImages.com

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Literatute
•Anderson, C., & Goodyear-Grant, E. (2010). Why are highly informed citizens sceptical of
referenda?. Electoral Studies, 29(2), 227-238.
•Brady, H. E. (1999). Political participation. Measures of political attitudes, 2, 737-801.
•Chang, Y. B., Weng, D. L. C., & Wang, C. H. (2021). Personality traits and the propensity to
protest: a cross-national analysis. Asian Journal of Political Science, 29(1), 22-41.
•Clarke, H. D., Goodwin, M., & Whiteley, P. (2017). Why Britain voted for Brexit: An
individual-level analysis of the 2016 referendum vote. Parliamentary Affairs, 70(3), 439-464.
•Couture, J., & Breux, S. (2017). The differentiated effects of health on political participation.
The European Journal of Public Health, 27(4), 599-604.
•Ekman, J., & Amnå, E. (2012). Political participation and civic engagement: Towards a new
typology. Human affairs, 22, 283-300.
•Freymeyer, R. H., & Johnson, B. E. (2010). A cross-cultural investigation of factors influencing
environmental actions. Sociological Spectrum, 30(2), 184-195.
•Goldberg, A. C., & Sciarini, P. (2023). Voter turnout in direct democracy: A joint analysis of
individual, referendum and community factors. European Journal of Political Research, 62(1), 25-46.
•Harper, S. F., & Parry, J. A. (2023). The effect of signing ballot petitions on turnout. Journal
of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 1-13.
•Hastings, J., & Cann, D. (2014). Ballot titles and voter decision making on ballot questions.
State and Local Government Review, 46(2), 118-127.
•Hobolt, S. B. (2005). When Europe matters: The impact of political information on voting behaviour
in EU referendums. Journal of elections, public opinion & parties, 15(1), 85-109.
•Liu, J., Modrek, S., & Sieverding, M. (2019). The effects of political protests on youth human
capital and well-being in Egypt. Social Science & Medicine, 243, 112602.
•Matthews, F. (2021). The value of ‘between-election’political participation: Do parliamentary
e-petitions matter to political elites?. The British Journal of Politics and International
Relations, 23(3), 410-429.
•Parry, J. A., Smith, D. A., & Henry, S. (2012). The impact of petition signing on voter turnout.
Political Behavior, 34, 117-136.
•Rudolph, L. (2020). Turning out to turn down the EU: The mobilisation of occasional voters and
Brexit. Journal of European Public Policy, 27(12), 1858-1878.
•Setyoko, P. I., Wahyuningrat, W., & Kurniasih, D. (2023). Factors of Successful E-Petitions in
Policy Making Process: A Scoping Review. Policy & Governance Review, 7(1), 72-85.
•Shuman, E., Goldenberg, A., Saguy, T., Halperin, E., & van Zomeren, M. (2024). When are social
protests effective?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 28(3), 252-263.
•Stockemer, D. (2014). What drives unconventional political participation? A two level study. The
Social Science Journal, 51(2), 201-211.
•Teorell, J., & Torcal, M. (2007). Political participation: Mapping the terrain. In Citizenship and
involvement in European democracies (pp. 358-381). Routledge.
•Ulo, K. L. M., Hidayanto, A. N., Sandhyaduhita, P. I., Fitriani, W. R., & Abidin, Z. (2019).
Factors influencing internet users’ intention to sign e-petitions. Transforming Government: People,
Process and Policy, 13(3/4), 257-275.
•Van Egmond, M., De Graaf, N. D., & Van Der Eijk, C. (1998). Electoral participation in the
Netherlands: Individual and contextual influences. European Journal of Political Research, 34(2),
281-300.
•Verba, S. (1995). Voice and equality: Civic voluntarism in American politics. Harvard UP.
•Wallace, S. J., Zepeda‐Millán, C., & Jones‐Correa, M. (2014). Spatial and temporal proximity:
Examining the effects of protests on political attitudes. American Journal of Political Science,
58(2), 433-448.
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