Political culture and democracy: analyzing crosslevel linkages
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In: Comparative Politics, Vol. 36, No. 1, 01.10.2003, p. 61-79.
Research output: Journal contributions › Scientific review articles › Research
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Political culture and democracy
T2 - analyzing crosslevel linkages
AU - Inglehart, Ronald
AU - Welzel, Christian Peter
PY - 2003/10/1
Y1 - 2003/10/1
N2 - Do individual-level attitudes play a significant role in sustaining democratic institutions at the societal level? In a recent article in Comparative Politics, Seligson argued that the strong aggregate-level correlations Inglehart found between political culture and stable democracy were spurious because there are no individual-level correlations between political culture and overt support for democracy. Seligson's analysis exemplifies the sort of cross-level fallacy he attributes to Inglehart: he equates individual-level support for democracy with the presence of democratic institutions. However, individual-level support of democracy is only weakly linked with societal-level democracy. Democracy currently has a positive image almost everywhere, but favorable opinions are often superficial. Unless they are accompanied by more deeply rooted orientations of tolerance, trust, and participation, chances for effective democracy are poor.
AB - Do individual-level attitudes play a significant role in sustaining democratic institutions at the societal level? In a recent article in Comparative Politics, Seligson argued that the strong aggregate-level correlations Inglehart found between political culture and stable democracy were spurious because there are no individual-level correlations between political culture and overt support for democracy. Seligson's analysis exemplifies the sort of cross-level fallacy he attributes to Inglehart: he equates individual-level support for democracy with the presence of democratic institutions. However, individual-level support of democracy is only weakly linked with societal-level democracy. Democracy currently has a positive image almost everywhere, but favorable opinions are often superficial. Unless they are accompanied by more deeply rooted orientations of tolerance, trust, and participation, chances for effective democracy are poor.
KW - Politics
KW - democracy
KW - Freedom
KW - Voting
KW - Economic development
KW - Elites
KW - Political attitudes
KW - unemployment
KW - Nazism
KW - Economics analysis
KW - Political corruption
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0242307170&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/2bbd09ab-8ea4-3ebe-b673-a2ce03d012c3/
U2 - 10.2307/4150160
DO - 10.2307/4150160
M3 - Scientific review articles
VL - 36
SP - 61
EP - 79
JO - Comparative Politics
JF - Comparative Politics
SN - 0010-4159
IS - 1
ER -