EUROPEAN SOCIAL SURVEY

Political apathy appears to be high in many European societies.

Political apathy appears to be high in many European societies.

Introduction

The European Social Survey (ESS) is a survey of opinions and attitudes of European citizens that is repeated every two years. The First Edition of the ESS was conducted in 2002; the ESS uses methodologically rigorous procedures that aim to ensure that data collected in the different participating countries are comparable. The ESS is funded by the European Commission and the European Science Foundation. In European countries, the ESS is funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. In the last two editions, the CIS has participated in the implementation of the SES and has financially supported the project.

The ESS was administered for the first time in September 2002 jointly in the 22 European countries participating in the project: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Hungary , Italy, Ireland, Norway, UK, Sweden, Switzerland (with Liechtenstein), Portugal, Poland and France. To these must be added Israel, an observer in the ESF, and Turkey, which also participates in the survey. Successive waves (second 2004-2005) and third (2006-2007) have been added more countries to nearly thirty. The purpose is to conduct the survey every two years in all these countries, replicating the central parts of the questionnaire and changing modules specific parts. For the purpose of this research, we have been using the third round of ESS survey to explore the following research problem:

Political apathy appears to be high in many European societies.

Considering the research question, we have undertaken some of the variable, whose description has been given below, altogether there were about 42833 respondents.

Variable Name

Description

Category

POLINTR

HOW INTERESTED IN POLITICS

Nominal

TRSTPLT

TRUST IN POLITICIANS

Nominal

CONTPLT

CONTACTED POLITICIAN OR GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL LAST 12 MONTHS

Nominal

MMBPRTY

MEMBER OF POLITICAL PARTY

Nominal

NWSPPOL

NEWSPAPER READING, POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS ON AVERAGE WEEKDAY

Nominal

POLCMPL

POLITICS TOO COMPLICATED TO UNDERSTAND

Nominal

POLDCS

MAKING MIND UP ABOUT POLITICAL ISSUES

Nominal

Overview of Existing Research

It is a state of indifference, passivity, lack of interest towards politics. It lives always as a spectator and try to ignore it. It is accompanied by a low responsiveness to political stimuli and low levels of political information. This phenomenon occurs both in democratic and authoritarian, although in both (though different) mechanisms are promoters of political participation. In its formation can affect the poor visibility and difficult access of the political system (the "State are they") and some characteristics of political culture (the excessive individualism, for example). Socially widespread political apathy increases the margin for manoeuvre, the discretion of the ruling classes, except when achieving the proposed goals requires a high level of social mobilization.

A large number of political analysts are now expresses outrage against the growing political apathy in European countries. A huge proportion of the population is outside the contours of political life, in fact, it is claimed only during election campaigns and rallies of opposition, i.e., only when it is beneficial to someone. We have long ceased to exist on October Pioneers, and virtually no organization among the ...