Perceptions of politics and their implications: exploring the link between conceptualisations of politics and political participation

Casting light on citizens’ conceptions of what is ‘political’

“…A few selected only one topic, some several, and others identified all 33 topics to be associated with politics. Morey and Eveland Jr. (2016) and Görtz and Dahl (2020) report similar results. What this 'conceptual-breadth literature' describes is that, simply put, citizens tend to draw the boundary between politics and non-politics differently, and that the meaning of politics ranges from narrow to wide.…”

“…They suggest that the extent to which people perceive the issues and phenomena they encounter as 'political' or not varies considerably. Referring to conceptions of politics as individuals' cognitive orientations of what constitutes politics (i.e., what does and what does not count as politics; e.g., Morey and Eveland 2016;Fitzgerald 2013;Görtz and Dahl 2020), 1 this 'conceptual-breadth literature' empirically demonstrates that some citizens label as 'politics' an extensive set of issues and various sorts of events, objects, and ideas. Other citizens, in turn, seem to hold a narrow conceptualization, perceiving little or even barely anything as 'political' (e.g., Manning 2010;Mathé 2017;O'Toole 2003).…”

“…A few empirical studies have followed such assumption and tested whether conceptions of politics influence political behavior. For instance, one study reports that those with a broad conception of politics, compared to those with a narrow conception, are more likely to participate in protest activities (Görtz and Dahl 2020). Relatedly, Coffé and Campbell (2019) identify two main sets of political activities (party-and non-party related activities) and show how engagement in each of them seems to explain very well (almost alone, apart from education) whether a person considers the kind of activities as political.…”

“…Footnote 4 (continued) respondents can categorize as either political or non-political. These lists often contain a broad spectrum of topics (e.g., Ferrin et al 2020;Podschuweit and Jacobs 2017;Görtz and Dahl 2020;Fitzgerald 2013).…”

“…In short, individuals draw the boundary between politics and non-politics differently: Some citizens embrace narrow understandings, regarding only few issues as political. While others hold broad conceptions, considering all sorts of objects, events, and ideas as political (e.g., Morey and Eveland 2016;Fitzgerald 2013;Görtz and Dahl 2020).…”