Value Congruence and Convergence Within Voluntary Associations: Ethnocentrism in Belgian Organizations

The observation of a positive relation between social interaction and tolerance levels is routinely explained by invoking a contact mechanism: interaction with different groups within society leads to abandoning prejudices toward that group. Because of typical high group homogeneity within associations, it seems unlikely that this mechanism could explain the positive effect of associational involvement on tolerance. Therefore, we propose a second, cultural mechanism to explain this relation. Based on the social-psychological process of value convergence, it is assumed that associations where tolerance is perceived as a salient and constitutive value will strengthen this attitude, even if these associations are homogeneous. An analysis of Belgian survey data (N = 1,341) suggests that not all kinds of associations have a negative effect on ethnocentrism, but only rather homogeneous associations with highly educated members and, therefore presumably initially low levels of ethnocentrism.     

Linking Social Capital to Political Participation: Voluntary Associations and Networks of Recruitment in Sweden1

That organizational involvement has a positive impact on political action is a well‐established finding in empirical research around the world. To account for this, theorists since Tocqueville have pointed to the returns in human capital, in particular ‘civic skills’, yielded by associations. This article, by contrast, is a study of whether social capital theory can help explain the same effect. According to the logic of ‘weak ties’, organizational involvement provides bridging social capital by connecting the individual to a wider range of people. As a result, the input of requests for participation increases and this ultimately leads to more activity. Unspecified in this argument, however, is what aspect of associational memberships is most conducive to such weak ties: the sheer number of memberships, or the extent to which one's memberships provide links to people of dissimilar social origin. In an unprecedented empirical test based on survey data from Sweden in 1997, it is shown that being connected to multiple voluntary associations is what matters for political activity, not the extent to which one's memberships cut across social cleavages. Moreover, the social capital mechanism of recruitment is more important in explaining this effect than the human capital mechanism of civic skills, since the former can account for why even passive members, not just organizational activists, may become more prone to take political action.     

Japanese Network Capital: The Impact of Social Networks on Japanese Political Participation

Recent scholarship shows that social capital has a large influence on political behavior. Social capital’s definition includes trust, norms of reciprocity, and social networks. Most studies, however, ignore the networking component. Here, we test the influence of social networks on political participation using new Japanese survey data. We separately test the effects of involvement in formally organized voluntary associations and informal social networks. We also examine whether hierarchical networks have a different impact on participation than equal relationships. To determine if networks with bridging or bonding social capital affect participation differently, we also measure the openness to outsiders of these networks. Negative binomial regression models indicate a strong positive relationship between formal and informal social networking—including network hierarchy and some forms of openness—and political participation.     

Social Development and Political Participation: Class, Organizations and Sex

The relationship between social development and political participation has been described by Nie, Powell, and Prewitt in terms of two major contentions: (1) social development leads to increases in both the relative size of the middle class and the scope of the organizational infrastructure; (2) both factors lead in turn to higher rates of political participation, but the one - socioeconomic status - is mediated by civic attitudes, while the other - organizational involvement - is not. In trying to assess these contentions in relation to Norway, the present study arrives at several interesting, but disparate, conclusions: (a) existing findings with relevance for the problem (Martinussen's Distant Democracy ) are open to reinterpretation; (b) in a highly developed corporate-pluralist state such as Norway, organizational involvement must be distinguished as to its dependent-variable and independent-variable characteristics; (c) occupational status must be problematized as a sexist indicator; (d) class characteristics are not important determinants of participation in Norway, but sex is; (e) in relation to involvement in the electoral channel, civic attitudes do not mediate class position as much as they mediate sex; and (f) in relation to involvement in the corporate (interest-group) channel, neither sex nor class are significantly mediated by attitudes. Finally, it is pointed out that the relevance of these findings for the Nie-Powell-Prewitt position is uncertain, due to the problematic operationalization of both sex and organizational involvement in the original study*.     

Social Networks and the Affective Impact of Political Disagreement

Although few studies have explored the link between emotion and political talk, here I argue that political disagreement depolarizes emotional reactions via information exchanged in social networks. Analyzing data from the ANES 2008–2009 Panel Study, several conclusions are drawn. First, disagreement increases negative emotions and decreases positive emotions toward the in-party candidate, and also increases positive emotions and decreases negative emotions toward the out-party candidate. In other words, disagreement depolarizes emotions toward political candidates. Second, the affective impact of disagreement does not vary with political knowledge. Finally, positive emotions toward the out-party candidate and negative emotions toward the in-party candidate reduce political interest, candidate issue placement accuracy, and political participation. Overall, this study develops important theoretical connections between affect and political talk that have implications for the value of political disagreement.     

The Electoral Relevance of Political Talk: Examining Disagreement and Expertise Effects in Social Networks on Political Participation

Although people with larger, more politicized social networks are more likely to participate in elections, we know very little about what drives this relationship. I argue that the electoral relevance of political talk depends heavily on the political expertise imbedded in discussion networks. Using data gathered during the 1996 presidential election, I demonstrate that the level of political sophistication in a person's social network exerts a positive influence on participation. Importantly, this effect is greater than the impact of political preferences in the network, the factor that is implicitly considered to be the main link between networks and involvement. This evidence makes two contributions to research on networks and participation. First, it provides support for a theoretical model that better accounts for research on the relationship between political talk, political disagreement, and involvement. Second, it changes the normative implications associated with political talk by suggesting that networks can encourage both higher levels of involvement and increased consideration of differing viewpoints.     

Disagreeing about Disagreement: How Conflict in Social Networks Affects Political Behavior

At the center of debates on deliberative democracy is the issue of how much deliberation citizens experience in their social networks. These “disagreements about disagreement” come in a variety of forms, with scholars advocating different empirical approaches (e.g., Huckfeldt, Johnson, and Sprague 2004 ; Mutz 2006 ) and coming to different substantive conclusions. We address these discrepancies by going back to the basics: investigating the consequences of conceptual and measurement differences for key findings relating interpersonal political disagreement to political attitudes and behaviors. Drawing on the 2008–2009 ANES panel study, we find evidence that different measures of disagreement have distinct effects when it comes to individuals’ preferences, patterns of engagement, and propensities to participate. We discuss the implications for the study of social influence; as interpersonal disagreement can mean different things, scholars should think carefully about how to study it and should exercise caution when making pronouncements about its empirical and democratic consequences.     

Social Media and the Paradox of Fear: An Exploratory Study of Political Relationship Marketing Within South Wales

This paper explores the key challenges of social media use by politicians in relation to political relationship marketing. Utilising a case study of the online footprint left by Welsh politicians and their attitude towards social media based on three business based rationales – engagement, level of control, and return on investment – the paper offers an expanded conception of the perceptions and fears influencing the use of social media by politicians in terms of political relationship marketing. The article concludes with some critical thoughts regarding the understanding of relationship marketing principles by politicians.     

论当前我国社会政治心理问题及其调适

政治心理对于社会实践具有重要的能动作用。但是,随着我国改革的进一步深化,一些消极政治心理的存在已是不争的事实。只有通过经济的快速发展,政治关系的深入调整与改革,提高思想政治教育的力度和水平,才能促进我国社会政治心理的优化。     

Context, Conversation and Conviction: Social Networks and Voting at the 1992 British General Election

After some initial interest, analyses of contextual effects in British voting behaviour have tended to downplay or ignore the role of face to face conversations between electors. However, evidence from the 1992 British Election Study shows that conversations with partisan discussants do act as a statistically significant influence on voting. Those who discuss politics with supporters of a particular party are more likely to switch their votes to that party, if they had not previously voted for it, and less likely to switch to other parties. Conversations with family members are particularly important, though talking to other discussants also plays a part.     

The State and Social Networks

Based on a comparative study of socio-political networks and state strategies in Northern Norway and Southern Italy, this article argues that state strategies and capacity play an important role in determining the structure and impact of social networks on regional development. Similar in their choice of policy regimes and active distribution of resources to their lagging peripheries, Italy and Norway display very different informal networks between socio-political actors as well as development characteristics. These differences in social networks and development can be traced back to the willingness and ability of state actors to entrench themselves at the centre of the socio-political networks in the regions. Their ability is constrained by the social networks themselves, hemmed in by past history of nation-building and is in essence a picture of the legitimacy of the state. State openness towards mobilising social groups enables it to keep control over the mobilisation process and build for itself a central role in social networks. State closeness towards mobilising social groups brings with it the danger that alternative elites will build alternative social networks on the different territories they control – networks in which the state will play a less central role. The cases illustrate the pros and cons of both types of state strategies, and form a good basis for a discussion of the optimal mix of state intervention and local social organisation in development.     

Social Networks and Collective Action

Despite growing attention to the role of social context in determining political participation, the effect of the structure of social networks remains little examined. This article introduces a model of interdependent decision making within social networks, in which individuals have heterogeneous motivations to participate, and networks are defined via a qualitative typology mirroring common empirical contexts. The analysis finds that some metrics for networks' influence—size, the prevalence of weak ties, the presence of elites—have a more complex interaction with network structure and individual motivations than has been previously acknowledged. For example, in some contexts additional network ties decrease participation. This presents the potential for selection bias in empirical studies. The model offers a fuller characterization of the role of network structure and predicts expected levels of participation across network types and distributions of motivations as a function of network size, weak and strong ties, and elite influence.     

探讨社会中介组织:中国行政改革的新思路

社会中介组织,在西方被称为介于公营部门(政府)和私营的营利性公司(企业)之间的“第三部门”,在调整政府与社会、政府与市场的关系上起着重要的作用。社会中介组织的支撑理念源自于“企业家政府”理论,其建立主要有两种典型方式:政府业务合同出租与根据契约建立起新的组织。为了促使社会中介组织的“管理”与政府公共部门的“监督”之间更好地衔接,需要建立起三大机制——竞争机制、责任机制与法律机制。随着市场经济体制的建立和完善,社会中介组织将在我国经济、政治与社会生活中扮演着越来越重要的角色,探讨社会中介组织对推动中国行政改革的发展有重要的现实意义。     

Personality and Political Discussion

Political discussion matters for a wide array of political phenomena such as attitude formation, electoral choice, other forms of participation, levels of political expertise, and tolerance. Thus far, research on the underpinnings of political discussion has focused on political, social, and contextual forces. We expand upon this existing research by examining how individual personality traits influence patterns of political discussion. Drawing on data from two surveys we investigate how personality traits influence the context in which citizens discuss politics, the nature of the relationship between individuals and their discussion partners, and the influence discussion partners have on respondents’ views. We find a number of personality effects and our results highlight the importance of accounting for individual predispositions in the study of political discussion.     

Employee Perceived Effect of Leadership Training: Comparing Public and Private Organizations

This study reports on the effectiveness of a year-long field experiment involving training in transformational and transactional leadership in the public and private sectors. Using before and after training assessments by employees of several hundred Danish leaders, the analysis shows that transformational leadership training is associated with increases in behaviors linked to both transformational leadership and the use of verbal rewards, but only for public sector organizations. There is no impact in private sector organizations. Transactional leadership training appears to be equally effective in stimulating the use of pecuniary rewards in both public and private organizations.     

The Monitoring Capacity of Civil Society Networks: A Social Network Analysis in the Case of Gender Equality Policy

The role of civil society organizations (CSOs) as a watchdog in the implementation process is widely acknowledged. However, little is known about what determines their capacity to monitor EU policy implementation and how it differs across member states. This article accounts for social capital as well as human and financial capital to determine the monitoring capacity of CSOs. To capture sources of social capital, a network analysis is applied in a comparative case article on the monitoring networks of national platforms of the European Women’s Lobby across eight EU member states. The analysis reveals that CSOs in western member states are rich in human, financial and social capital, while CSOs in CEE member states compensate for this lack of resources by linking up with the Commission.     

Expertise and Bias in Political Communication Networks

Citizens minimize information costs by obtaining political guidance from others who have already assumed the costs of acquiring and processing political information. A problem occurs because ideal informants, typically characterized by the joint presence of political expertise and shared viewpoints, are frequently unavailable or rare within the groups where individuals are located. Hence, individuals must often look beyond their own group boundaries to find such informants. The problem is that obtaining information from individuals located beyond their own groups produces additional costs. Moreover, the availability of ideal informants varies across groups and settings, with the potential to produce (1) context‐dependent patterns of informant centrality, which in turn generate (2) varying levels of polarization among groups and (3) biases in favor of some groups at the expense of others. The article's analysis is based on a series of small‐group experiments, with aggregate implications addressed using a simple agent‐based model.     

大学生思想政治网络教育生活化探析

教育来源于生活又回归于生活,故教育应生活化,而生活在网络化时代,高校教育应根据大学生网络生活化的发展趋势,将思想政治教育的内容、方式方法等融入大学生的网络生活中,以实现教育的生活化、网络化。探讨大学生思想政治网络教育生活化的现状有助于发现目前思想政治在网络生活化教育中存在的问题,而对其意义及方法路径的探析则有助于实现大学生网络思想政治教育的生活化。     

Idealist Activism and Meaning Management in Social Movement Organizations

ABSTRACT

Transnational social movement organizations manage meaning and transmit meaning across borders. Organizations in the peace and human rights sector also often deal overtly in the construction, framing, translation, and distribution of meanings. This article describes a hybrid form of idealism that is defined herein as ‘idealist activism’. In describing idealist activism, this article identifies a form of meaning management that emphasizes engagement with humanity both in the service of and in the quest for universal truths and tenets, as opposed to the more widely acknowledged cosmopolitanism emphasis on engagement with universal truths and tenets in the service of humanity. The significance of idealist activism is explained not just in terms of the depth and breadth of its influence, but also with regard to its pertinence as an alternative to both political cosmopolitanism and religious idealism.     

大学生志愿服务活动在高校思想政治教育中的作用

大学生志愿服务活动具有:自愿性、实践性、组织性、多样性等与普通志愿服务所不同的独特性。高校思想政治教育工作者应根据其独特性,结合大学生身心特点,通过志愿服务活动为大学生提供德育实践的平台、丰富高校思想政治教育的形式、激发大学生强烈的社会责任感,拓宽大学生的眼界与胸怀,切实为推动大学生思想政治教育工作发挥作用。