Achim Goerres

Attitudes towards redistributive spending in an era of demographic ageing : the rival pressures from age and income in 14 OECD countries

This article is about the relative impact of age and income on individual attitudes towards welfare state policies in advanced industrial democracies; that is, the extent to which the intergenerational conflict supercedes or complements intragenerational conflicts. On the basis of a multivariate statistical analysis of the 1996 ISSP Role of Government Data Set for 14 OECD countries, we find considerable age-related differences in welfare state preferences. In particular for the case of education spending, but also for other policy areas, we see that ones position in the life cycle is a more important predictor of preferences than income. Second, some countries, such as the United States, show a higher salience of the age cleavage across all policy fields; that is, age is a more important line of political preference formation in these countries than in others. Third, country characteristics matter. Although the relative salience of age varies across policy areas, we see — within one policy area — a large variance across countries.

The Political Participation of Older People in Europe: The Greying of Our Democracies

This thesis answers two questions: to what extent do older people in Europe differ from younger people in terms of their participation in politics, and why. It tests an age-centred model of political participation that is theoretically supported by prior knowledge about political-psychological thinking processes and the social behaviour of older people. The empirical innovation lies in a combination of quantitative survey analysis and the qualitative analysis of interviews with older people. The evidence comes from 21 European countries that were in the European Social Survey 2002/3, from British and West German national surveys of the post-war era and from interviews with older English protesters. The thesis focuses on voting participation, party choice and non-institutionalised political participation outside of organisations. Older people participate differently from younger people in politics because they have a different endowment of resources and motivation as well as of opportunities and exposure to mobilisation. This fact is due to a mixture of cohort effects, which are linked to the specific generation that the individuals are members of, and life cycle effects, which are grounded on varying social circumstances across the life cycle. Furthermore, older people benefit from a larger pool of political experience and possess a greater commitment to comply with social norms of political behaviour. Their political preferences are primarily shaped by their generational membership, whereas life cycle variations in political preferences are minor. There is also exploratory evidence that older people suffer from social stereotypes about their role in participatory politics. They internalise societal images about older people, one of which is that they should be passive in some forms of participation, such as protest activities. Thus, their participation level is lower than that of younger people even when all other age-related effects are held constant.

Age-Based Self-Interest, Intergenerational Solidarity and the Welfare State: A Comparative Analysis of Older People’s Attitudes Towards Public Childcare in 12 OECD Countries

When faced with the necessity of reforming welfare states in ageing societies, politicians tend to demand more solidarity between generations because they assume that reforms require sacrifices from older people. Political economy models, however, do not investigate such a mechanism of intergenerational solidarity, suggesting that only age-based self-interest motivates welfare preferences. Against this backdrop, this article asks: Does the experience of intergenerational solidarity within the family matter for older people’s attitudes towards public childcare, a policy area of no personal interest to them? The statistical analysis of a sample with individuals aged 55 from 12 OECD countries indicates that (1) intergenerational solidarity matters, that (2) its effect on policy preferences is context-dependent and that (3) influential contexts must – according to the evidence from 12 countries - be sought in all societal spheres, the political (family spending by the state), the economic (female labour market integration) and the cultural (public opinion towards working mothers). Overall, the findings imply that policy-makers need to deal with a way more complex picture of preference formation toward the welfare state than popular stereotypes of “greedy geezers�? suggest.

Doing it for the Kids? The Determinants of Attitudes towards Public Childcare in Unified Germany

In order to explain why people differ in their attitudes towards public childcare, we present a theoretical framework that integrates four causal mechanisms: regime socialization, political ideology, family involvement and material self-interest. Estimation results obtained from multivariate regressions on the 2002 German General Social Survey and replications on the 2008/9 European Social Survey can be condensed into three statements: (1) Regime socialization is the single most important determinant of attitudes toward public childcare followed by young age as an indicator of self-interest and political ideology. Family involvement does not have any sizeable impact. (2) Regime socialization conditions the impact of some indicators of political ideology and family involvement on attitudes toward public childcare. (3) Despite a paradigmatic shift in policy, the dynamics of 2008 mirror those of 2002, highlighting the stability of inter-individual differences in support. The results suggest that the “shadow of communism” still stretches over what people in the East expect from the welfare state and that individual difference in the demand for public childcare appears to be highly path-dependent.

Being Less Active and Outnumbered

“I am afraid to say that we are currently witnessing the early signs of a pensioners’ democracy. Older people are becoming more numerous, and all political parties pay extraordinary attention to them. This development could end in a situation in which older people would plunder the young.”

Adopting the euro in post-communist countries: An analysis of the attitudes toward the single currency

The new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe achieved an economic and political tour de force on their way to EU accession. Their next challenge is the entry to the eurozone. Thus, the dynamics of public opinion toward the euro become crucial for political leaders. We test three perspectives - economic, political, and historical-ideational - with individual-level survey data from eight countries and conclude that the combined model best explains variations in support for the euro. In an environment of volatility in post-communist Europe, macro variables of economic and historicalideational factors have the strongest impact on individual attitudes, while micro-variables of economic self-interest do not further our understanding of euro support. Thus, distributional issues matter less than the aggregate national performance and experience. Political parties that garner support for the euro should therefore concentrate on economic consolidation and political stability rather than politicizing a winner-loser cleavage.

Aktives Lernen in der Massenveranstaltung: Flipped-Classroom-Lehre als Alternative zur klassischen Vorlesung in der Politikwissenschaft

German Abstract: Auf welche Weise erzielen Studierende in politikwissenschaftlichen Grosveranstaltungen den besten Lernerfolg? Anstatt die Studierenden in einer klassischen Vorlesung zu passiven Wissenskonsumenten zu machen, ist der „Flipped Classroom“ oder „Inverted Classroom“ eine vielversprechende Alternative, die auf die Aktivierung der Studierenden setzt. Dabei wird die Vorlesungszeit zur Grosubung in kleinen Arbeitsgruppen, wahrend strukturierte Ubersichtsinformationen und Aufgaben zur Vermittlung und Erarbeitung von grundlegendem Wissen in Form von Lekture und Videos aus der gemeinsamen Vorlesungszeit in die Vorbereitungszeit der Studierenden verlagert werden. Dieser Artikel stellt das innovative Format des Flipped Classroom (FC) vor und bewertet es vorlaufig anhand von explorativer Evidenz einer Methodenvorlesung im ersten Fachsemester des BA Politikwissenschaft an der Universitat Duisburg-Essen.English Abstract: This article in German assesses the effectiveness of teaching in flipped classroom format in a large-group lecture of political science.The format changes the use of face-to-face time in the lecture hall to interactive group work with introductory material made available before the lecture in the form on online lectures. The empirical analysis of exam results demonstrates that Flipped Classroom increases the performance in higher-level learning outcomes if they are tested appropriately.

Die Sicht der Bürgerinnen und Bürger auf Sozialstaat und Generationenverhältnisse in einer alternden Gesellschaft. Eine Analyse von Gruppendiskussionen

Die intergenerationale Umverteilung im deutschen Wohlfahrtsstaat muss aufgrund der gesellschaftlichen Alterung angepasst werden. In der Folge wird das Generationenverhältnis politisch relevant. Wie nehmen Bürger/ -innen den Sozialstaat und das Generationenverhältnis in der alternden Gesellschaft wahr? Die in diesem Beitrag vorgenommene qualitative Analyse von zwölf Gruppendiskussionen zeigt: (1) Die Alterszusammensetzung der Gruppen bestimmte den Diskussionsverlauf erheblich. (2) Verschiedene Generationen empfanden den Generationenvertrag als ungerecht. Die jüngere Generation, welche auch als „ Verlierergeneration “ bezeichnet wird, äußerte jedoch auch Aspekte, die ihre nachteilige Situation relativierten. (3) Die Erfahrungen mit verschiedenen Generationen in der eigenen Familie wurden von den Teilnehmenden mit Wahrnehmungen der Generationenverhältnisse im Sozialstaat verbunden. (4) Generationengerechtigkeit wurde in allen Diskussionsgruppen normativ äußerst positiv bewertet, ihre Umsetzbarkeit aber zugleich verneint.

Varieties of Capitalism, Education and Inequalities in Political Participation

The positive association between education and voting participation is well-documented in the literature. What has not been studied so far is the variation of the micro-level effect of education across countries and whether the institutional set-up of the political economy might contribute to explaining this variation. The core claim of this chapter is that the degree of economic coordination influences the impact of education on participation on the micro level – on top of a host of alternative explanations. Relative to those with basic training, individuals with a vocational education are more likely to participate in elections in coordinated market economies compared to liberal market economies. We offer two explanations for this robust effect, centering on the impact of social networks and psychological effects. The empirical basis for this article is a multi-level analysis of survey data from the European Values Survey (2008).

Economics, Politics or Identities? Explaining Individual Support for the Euro in New EU Member States in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract The next challenge for EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe after accession is entry to the Euro-zone, making the dynamics of public opinion towards the Euro crucial for political leaders. We test three perspectives—economic, political and historical–ideational—with individual-level and contextual data from eight countries and conclude that the combined model based on individual wellbeing explains support for the Euro best. The most important positive determinants are not economic self-interest, but the success of economic transition, historical legacies of grave war experiences, a personal identity not exclusively focused on the nation and satisfaction with democracy.