Perception about politics
Answers
Answer:
Recent studies directing attention to how people perceive and define politics have provided valuable contributions to our knowledge of what people do and do not think of as politics. Taken together, the results suggest that individuals’ conceptualisations of politics tend to vary. Considerably less is known, however, about how conceptualisations are related to behaviour. This study aims to fill that gap, by testing the hypothesis that those with a wider conception of what constitutes politics are also more likely to participate in political activities. Drawing on data from a survey administered to students at a Swedish University, the key result shows a clear and positive correlation between conceptualisations of politics and political participation, suggesting that the more issues that people perceive as politics, the more likely it is that they are involved in varieties of political participation. Furthermore, the relationship was still present during analyses including other well-known predictors of participation. This indicates that conceptualisations of politics seem to capture variation in individual political participation better than traditional predictors such as political interest, internal political efficacy, and political awareness. It further suggests that perceptions of politics constitute a distinct political orientation, above and beyond these well-known important factors for understanding political participation. Overall, these results are a first indication that future studies of political participation should not neglect. We therefore suggest that the field of political participation should incorporate indicators of both conceptualisations of politics and political participation.