Journal Articles

Are Diverse Political Networks Always Bad for Participatory Democracy? Indifference, Alienation, and Political Disagreements

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Political discussions within interpersonal networks not only help communicate political information that is otherwise too costly to obtain, but they also expose people to political views that are not necessarily congruent to their own predispositions. In exploring consequences of exposure to political disagreements, existing literature finds an interesting dilemma: Although political disagreements contribute to the deliberative democracy by encouraging greater awareness of rationales for opposing views as well as greater political tolerance, they undermine the prospect for participatory democracy by demobilizing people. In response, this article shows that experiences of political disagreements do not necessarily discourage political participation. More specifically, based on the American National Election Study 2000, we find that the demobilizing effect of political disagreements continues to decrease with increasing levels of indifference and alienation between the candidates. Furthermore, among highly alienated individuals, we find that experiences of political disagreements can actually promote their voting turnout.

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Detail Information

Series Title

American Politics Research

Call Number

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Publisher

: sage publisher., 2009

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

1532673x

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Vol. 37 no. 5 September 2009 pp. 879-898

Subject(s)

Political participation
deliberative democracy
Political Networks
Political discussion
Disagreement
Are Diverse Political Networks

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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