Pippa Norris

A virtuous circle : political communications in postindustrial societies

List of tables List of figures Preface Part I. The News Media and Civic Malaise: 1. The news media and democracy 2. Evaluating media performance 3. Understanding political communications Part II. Trends in Political Communication: 4. The decline of newspapers? 5. The rise (and fall?) of the television age 6. The emerging internet era 7. The evolution of campaign communications 8. The rise of the post-modern campaign? Part III. The Impact on Democracy: 9. Negative news, negative public? 10. Knows little? Information and choice 11. Cares less? Cynical media, cynical public? 12. Stays home? Political mobilization 13. American exceptionalism? 14. A virtuous circle? Technical appendix Notes Select bibliography Author index Subject index.

Does Television Erode Social Capital? A Reply to Putnam

During the past thirty-five years many commentators have expressed concern about declining support for the American political system, noting familiar evidence of the steady erosion in electoral turnout (Stanley and Niemi 1995, 78; Teixeira 1992), falling participation in political parties (Rosenstone and Hansen 1993), plummeting levels of political trust (Lipset and Schneider 1987), and weakening civic engagement (Putnam 1995a). Evidence for declining confidence in American government is well-established. The standard National Election Study measures show that in 1954 three-quarters of the American public trusted government in Washington to do what was right ‘just about always or most of the time’. By 1994, a quarter of the public proved as trusting. Moreover how far Americans trust each other—or social trust—has also fallen by more than a third since the early sixties (Uslaner 1995; Putnam 1995a). Not all the evidence points in the same direction, and some alternative forms of political activity may have risen over time (Verba et al. 1995, 70–71). Moreover comparative research (Klingemann and Fuchs 1995) provides no evidence for a uniform secular decline in electoral turnout and confidence in government across advanced democracies, as sometimes assumed by observers. Nevertheless it is widely believed that American democracy has been experiencing a crisis of legitimacy, with angry voters disillusioned by Washington politics as usual.

The Developmental Theory of the Gender Gap: Women's and Men's Voting Behavior in Global Perspective

Studies carried out in many countries in previous decades found that women were more conservative than men and less likely to participate in politics. Here, it is examined whether this traditional gender gap persists today, or whether gender cleavages in the electorate have converged, and whether the phenomenon of the modern gender gap, with women more left wing, has become evident elsewhere. The article draws on evidence from the World Values Surveys in the early 1980s, and the early and mid-1990s carried out in over sixty countries around the world. This study establishes that gender differences in electoral behavior have been realigning, with women moving toward the left of men throughout advanced industrial societies (though not in postcommunist societies or developing countries) and explores the reasons for this development, including the role of structural and cultural factors. The conclusion considers the political implications of the findings.

Gender Equality and Democracy

Although democratic institutions existed long before gender equality, at this point in history, growing emphasis on gender equality is a central component of the process of democratization. Support for gender equality is not just a consequence of democratization. It is part of a broad cultural change that is transforming industrialized societies and bringing growing mass demands for increasingly democratic institutions. This article analyzes the role of changing mass attitudes in the spread of democratic institutions, using survey evidence from 70 societies containing 80 percent of the worlds population. The evidence supports the conclusion that the process of modernization drives cultural change that encourage both the rise of women in public life, and the development of democratic institutions.

Westminster Women: The Politics of Presence

The entry of the 1997 cohort of Labour women into public life offers a test case of whether, and under what conditions, women politicians have the capacity to ‘make a substantive difference’. We outlines the theory of the politics of presence and discuss how to operationalise this in a testable model. We, use the British Representation Study survey of 1,000 national politicians (including parliamentary candidates and elected Members of Parliament) conducted in the 2001 general election. The analysis centres on the impact of gender on five scales measuring attitudes and values on issues that commonly divide British party politics. Once we control for party, there are no significant differences among women and men politicians across the value scales concerning the free market economy, Europe, and moral traditionalism. Yet on the values most directly related to womens interests – namely the affirmative action and the gender equality scales – women and men politicians differ significantly within each party, even after controlling for other common social background variables that explain attitudes, such as their age, education, and income. The conclusion considers why these findings matter for the composition of parliament, the public policy agenda and for womens roles as political leaders.

Cultural Obstacles to Equal Representation

A fundamental problem facing the worldwide process of democratization is the continued lack of gender equality in political leadership. The basic facts are not in dispute: Today women represent only one in seven parliamentarians, one in ten cabinet ministers, and, at the apex of power, one in 20 heads of state or government. Multiple factors have contributed to this situation, including structural and institutional barriers. But what is the influence of political culture? Are attitudes toward women as political leaders a significant barrier to their empowerment? In particular, how important is culture as compared with structural and institutional factors? These are the questions that our study seeks to address. Despite moves toward gender equality in many spheres, barriers to the entry of women into elected office persist. In June 2000, the UN General Assembly held a special session entitled “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace,” the latest in a long series of international conferences calling for the empowerment of women. The session focused on the need for full recognition of women’s rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as demands for progress toward gender equality in education, health care, work, the family, and the public sphere. Women have mobilized at the grassroots, national, and global levels to Pippa Norris is associate director of research at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She has published more than two dozen books, including A Virtuous Circle (2000) and Digital Divide (2001). Ronald Inglehart is professor of political science and program director at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. He helped to found the Eurobarometer surveys and directs the World Values Surveys. His recent books include Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies (1997).

Choosing Electoral Systems: Proportional, Majoritarian and Mixed Systems:

Until recently electoral systems have usually proved remarkably resilient to radical reform. Yet in the last decade this pattern has been broken in a number of established democracies. The emergence of newer democracies has also generated a resurgence of interest in what criteria should be used in the choice of an electoral system. Given these developments, the aim of this article is to outline the main variants in different types of electoral system; to consider the normative criteria underpinning debates about reform; and to evaluate the relevant standards for choosing an electoral system. The article compares legislative elections in 53 democracies, including countries at different level of economic and political development, in order to examine the effects of electoral systems under a wide variety of conditions.

The restless searchlight: Network news framing of the post‐Cold War world

For many decades the Cold War frame provided a clear and simple way for American reporters to select, structure, and prioritize complex news about international affairs. The Cold War frame cued journalists and viewers about friends and enemies throughout the world. The key question posed in this article is, What are the consequences of the breakdown of this frame for how American network television communicates international news? The article presents the results of an extensive content analysis of network news in the pre‐ and post‐Cold War periods (1973–1995).

To Entertain, Inform, and Educate: Still the Role of Public Television

The introduction of commercial television in West European countries during the 1980s was accompanied by a fierce discussion about the consequences of ending the monopoly of public broadcasting. While proponents of market liberation argued that the outcome would produce greater diversity of contents and audiences, opponents feared negative consequences from this development. Against this background, the study reported here analyzes data from the EU member states to assess the relationship between preference for either public or commercial television and political knowledge. Findings show that in most countries preference for public television goes hand-in-hand with greater knowledge of EU political matters. The conclusion considers the consequences of these findings.

Muslim Integration into Western Cultures: Between Origins and Destinations

To what extent do migrants carry their culture with them, and to what extent do they acquire the culture of their new home? The answer not only has important political implications; it also helps us understand the extent to which basic cultural values are enduring or malleable, and whether cultural values are traits of individuals or are attributes of a given society. The first part of this article considers theories about the impact of growing social diversity in Western nations. We classify two categories of society: Origins (defined as Islamic Countries of Origin for Muslim migrants, including twenty nations with plurality Muslim populations) and Destinations (defined as Western Countries of Destination for Muslim migrants, including 22 OECD member states with Protestant or Roman Catholic majority populations). Using this framework, we demonstrate that, on average, the basic social values of Muslim migrants fall roughly midway between those prevailing in their country of origin and their country of destination. We conclude that Muslim migrants do not move to Western countries with rigidly fixed attitudes; instead, they gradually absorb much of the host culture, as assimilation theories suggest.