Legislative Diversity and Social Tolerance: How Multiparty Systems Lead to Tolerant Citizens

Abstract

A BSTRACT This article argues that individuals in countries with a more diverse political discourse express high levels of social tolerance relative to those in low-discourse countries. Political systems with more parties facilitate the consideration of a broader range of issues, including those relevant to the interests of marginalized groups, and greater exposure to these issues increases individually-held levels of social tolerance. Using data from the World Values Survey and other sources, we demonstrate that the number of parties in the legislature is positively related to social tolerance. Our results are robust across several model specifications.

Crafting tolerance: the role of political institutions in a comparative perspective

“…Sullivan et al, 1993;Norris, 2002;Dunn et al, 2009), we present an empirically and theoretically more diverse index of social tolerance. Sullivan et al, 1993;Norris, 2002;Dunn et al, 2009), we present an empirically and theoretically more diverse index of social tolerance.…”

Shaping tolerant attitudes towards immigrants: The role of welfare state expenditures

“…Crepaz and Damron, 2009;Kirchner et al, 2011), the political system (e.g. Dunn et al, 2009;Peffley and Rohrschneider;Weldon, 2006) as well as economic factors (e.g. Andersen and Fetner, 2008) contribute to the formation of tolerance.…”

“…Hjerm, 2009;Quillian, 1995;Schneider, 2008) by asking how tolerance may combat these negative attitudes. While previous studies have evaluated how welfare state expenditures impact immigrant-specific prejudice (among others Dunn et al, 2009;Kirchner et al, 2011), contributions [3] analyzing how these prejudices can be resolved are rare (see e.g. Freitag and Rapp, 2013).…”

Religiosity and tolerance in Turkey: Is Islam the problem?

“…Here, the concern is not whether to provide different groups with formal political rights, but rather to accept diversity within one's social relations (Persell, Green, and Gurevich 2001). Social tolerance is defined briefly as having non-negative dispositions towards out-groups (Dunn, Orellana, and Singh 2009). Hence, this type of tolerance concerns the attitudes towards individuals perceived to be different, and also to those on the margins of the society, e.g.…”