Political Interest, Participation and Affect in Representative Democracies

Research question/goal: 

The present research project aims at the explanation of differences in the level of political interest of citizens in representative democracies. Political interest is defined here as a person's curiosity to learn more about political events. It is planned to develop a model of political interest that combines explanatory factors at the individual and the contextual level. Especially the effects of the politicisation of society by activities of the state shall be examined.

Fact sheet

Funding: 
DFG / MZES
Duration: 
1996 to 2000
Status: 
completed
Data Sources: 
Interviews, secondary analysis
Geographic Space: 
Western Europe/EU-country

Publications

Journal Articles

van Deth, Jan W. (2000): Interesting but irrelevant: Social capital and the saliency of politics in Western Europe. European Journal of Political Research, issue 37, pp. 115-147. more
van Deth, Jan W. (2000): Political interest and apathy: the decline of a gender gap?. Acta Politica, 35, issue 2, pp. 247-274. more

Book Chapters

van Deth, Jan W. (2000): Das Leben, nicht die Politik ist wichtig. Pp. 115-400 in: Oskar Niedermayer, Bettina Westle (Eds.) Demokratie und Partizipation. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag. more

MZES Working Papers

van Deth, Jan W., and Martin Elff (2001): Politicisation and Political Interest in Europe: A Multi-Level Approach. Mannheim [Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung: Arbeitspapiere; 36] more
van Deth, Jan W., and Martin Elff (2000): Political Involvement and Apathy in Europe 1973 - 1998. Mannheim [Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung: Arbeitspapiere; 33] more