Cooperation project

  
Political Culture and Political Development

In cooperation with Dr. Russell J. Dalton from the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), University of California, Irvine (USA), this project conceptualizes a key transformation in the civic culture and civil society of postindustrial societies: the transition from a traditional model of “allegiant democratic citizens” to a new model of “assertive democratic citizens.” This model is examined in three dimensions of civic culture and civil society: pre-political value orientations, political orientations towards government and democracy, and styles of participation in civil society. Using data from the Global Democracy Barometers and the World Values Surveys, the empirical implications of the “assertive citizen model” are tested on a worldwide comparative scale, using multi-level models to examine how a society’s cultural legacy, (un)democratic history, and economic development vary the prevalent model of democratic citizenship and hence the character of civil society.

This project is co-funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the CSD, UC Irvine and is supposed to result in an edited volume published at a distinguished university press.