Citizens and Community: Political Support in a Representative DemocracyThe related subjects of political legitimacy and system support are key theoretical concerns of students of democratic societies. They have received very little scholarly attention, however, because of the conceptual and methodological complexities they engender. In this book, the authors address these concerns through systematic multivariate analyses of the sources, distribution and consequences of variations in citizen support for key political objects in one such society, Canada. Although they do so within a comparative context, their primary focus is on Canada because it is not only one of the world's oldest democracies, but is a country that has experienced support problems that periodically have reached crisis proportions. Many of the problems facing Canada are extreme examples of difficulties that have vexed other democracies and this study helps illuminate both the conditions under which democracies in general are able to sustain themselves and those under which they could flounder. The authors demonstrate that political support has its origins in people's political socialization experiences and their judgments about the operation of key political and economic institutions and processes. They find that political support is not "of a piece" and that average citizens are able to distinguish among and ascribe different degrees of support to key political objects such as Parliament, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, parties, the system of federalism, and the national political community itself. |
Contents
Economy society self | 34 |
Democracy political system self | 61 |
Political support and its correlates | 105 |
Quebec and the West | 144 |
Elections and political support | 176 |
and regime 198083 198384 and 1988 national panels | 188 |
Other editions - View all
Citizens and Community: Political Support in a Representative Democracy Allan Kornberg,Harold D. Clarke No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
1988 federal election activities analyses argued attitudes authorities support average British Columbia campaign Canadian political Chapter citizens civil service community support compliance Conservative correlations Duke University effectiveness and equity-fairness electoral factors federal and provincial federal elections federal government federal party identification feelings Francophone free trade government effectiveness government of Canada government's impact important influence issue John Turner judiciary Kornberg levels major Meech Lake Meech Lake Accord ment Mulroney national elections national political community negative Ontario orientations panel parliament parliament-civil service Parti Québécois participation partisan party leaders people's percent Pierre Trudeau political authorities political efficacy Political Science political support political system positive predictors provincial party identifications Quebec Québécois referendum regime and community regime support region-ethnicity regional relationships representative democracies responses scores significant Social Credit sociodemographic sociotropic sovereignty-association support in Canada support process surveys tions Toronto Trudeau Turner unemployment University Press variables vote voters Western