Mobilizing the Economically Disadvantaged into Politics: Considering the Role of Context

Abstract

Economic hardship and inequality have a demonstrated negative impact on citizens’ involvement in politics, including their acquisition of political information, levels of interest in politics, and turnout in elections (e.g., Emmenegger, Marx and Schraff 2017; Gallego 2015). However, the strength of this negative effect is conditioned by cross-national and temporal differences in socio-economic, political and communication factors (e.g., Anderson and Beramendi 2012; Cicatiello, Ercolano and Gaeta 2015; Fraile 2013; Jensen & Jespersen 2017). The panel would like to bring further attention to the mitigating role of contextual factors on when and how economic hardship undermines participation in politics, broadly defined. Furthermore, we welcome papers that use variation in economic conditions produced by the Great Recession to disentangle these relationships. Papers may address some of the following questions: Can certain party and electoral system characteristics – polarization, populist alternatives on the left and/or right, or the proportionality of the electoral system – mobilize the economically disadvantaged, and in what ways? Does the content of news programming – the preponderance of soft- or hard-news, or fake news – condition the negative effect of economic hardship on political participation? What, if any, has been the role of welfare state generosity in ameliorating the political demobilization of the poor during the Great Recession? We welcome contributions on these and related topics.