Week 9: The Downside of Civic Culture

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Week 9 The Downside of Civic Culture

• Readings
• Allen 1-167 and 183-200
• Reader Fiorina

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Guiding Questions

• What motivates political participation?
• Is political participation rational?
• What explains the fall of the Weimar Republic?
• Is civic culture all that it is cracked up to
  be?

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Downsides of Civic Culture Fiorina

• Fiorina Putnams view of the civic culture often
  accepted without question argues that civic
  virtue may not always be a good thing.
• It is the quality, not the quantity of civic
  culture that matters.
• Intermediate levels of civic engagement can
  foster suboptimal outcomes.

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Paradox of Openness

• Fiorina looks at public opinion trends suggesting
  Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with
  their government.
• Paradox Americans distrust in government rises
  in direct relation to openness of government.
• The big question Why?

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Fiorinas Explanation

• Fiorina dismisses current explanations of voter
  apathy.
• Distrust is due to two factors
• 1) Increased openness and transparency within
  government
• 2) Increased access has turned citizens off.

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Extremist Influence

• Ideology shapes the participation of those who
  frequently participate in politics.
• Political consequences of frequent participants
  turns off many voters.
• When civic engagement is hijacked by extremists
  it has a dark side ignored by Putnam

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Why participate? Intrinsic Motivations

• Intrinsic participation can be represented by the
  following equation
• E(P) p(B) c
• E(P) expected utility (value) of participation.
• p probability your action is decisive for the
  final outcome.
• B value of proposed alternative.
• c costs of participating.
• You participate if the benefits outweigh the
  costs.
• Probability of decisiveness is zero, so
  participation is always costly.

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Why participate? Expressive Motivations

• But we know people vote for other reasons.
• Participation may be valued for its expressive
  functions.
• E(P) p(B) c E
• Under these circumstances, those who participate
  have a vested interest in the outcome.
• The ideologically motivated exert a
  disproportionate influence.

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Fiorinas Recommendation

• Make participation easier to dilute extreme
  voices.
• Miracle of Aggregation Larger group decisions
  tend to more rational than smaller group
  decisions.
• Political participation is unnatural frequent
  participants are the people nobody sent

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Examining Fiorina

• Raises important qualifications about the utility
  of civic culture.
• The type of political culture should be taken
  into account when examining democratic stability.
• But is mass political opinion inherently more
  moderate and more rational?
• Can high levels of turnout and associational
  interaction mask deeper societal problems?

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Weimar Germany

• Weimar Republic 1919-1933
• In the course of a fifteen year time span,
  Germany would go from authoritarianism (Imperial
  Germany), to democracy (Weimar Republic), and
  totalitarianism (Nazi Germany).
• Resurgent economy and a strong political culture.
• What factors explains the fall of the Weimar
  republic?

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Institutions Weimar Germany

• Semi-presidential system.
• President and parliament directly elected.
• President head of state.
• Chancellor head of government.
• President selected the cabinet
• Cabinet could be dismissed by either the
  president or the Chancellor.
• President could rule by decree when Reichstag
  could not agree.
• Low electoral thresholds favored small parties.

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Demographics Northeim

• Allen examines the decline of Weimar Germany
  through the lens of the central German town of
  Northeim.
• Population 10,000 inhabitants in 1930.
• 25 native born, 26 from the county, 34 from
  the remainder of the region, 15 from outside
  region and inside Germany.
• Strong distinctions between long time residents
  and recent residents.

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Class Northeim

• 37 working class, 32 lower middle class, 27
  upper middle class, 4 upper class.
• Large petite bourgeoisie was ripe for Hitlers
  appeals.
• Strong class stratification.
• Workers had their own associations (labor
  unions/SPD), the middle classes had their own
  clubs, etc.

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Political Culture Northeim

• Associational levels and newspaper readership
  were high.
• Voter turnout in all nine elections from
  1930-1932 was above 90
• All are indicative of high levels of trust (i.e.
  civic culture).
• BUT, associational groups and newspaper
  subscriptions reinforced rather than bridged
  societal divisions.
• Political parties also reinforced class
  divisions.
• Not a problem while the economic outlook was
  strong, but when it dipped

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Great Depression

• 1930 The effects of the Great Depression begin
  to be felt.
• Unemployment hit the working class the quickest
  and the hardest.
• BUT fear amongst the middle classes was
  especially pronounced.

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Radicalization of the Middle Class

• Nationalism after Versailles treaty existed, but
  strong economic times blunted the strength of
  nationalist parties.
• As taxes rise, credit becomes more difficult to
  obtain, and the Left appears firmly rooted in
  government.
• Middle classes begin to look towards more radical
  parties of the right.
• The Nazi Party (NSDAP) was insignificant in 1928
  (approx. 2 of the vote), but grew in popularity
  in response to this economic malaise.

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NSDAP Retools their Message

• Nazis had spent the stable years of the Weimar
  Republic retooling their methods and their
  message.
• Shifted focus towards small business owners,
  farmers, and shop clerks on an explicitly anti
  Marxist, patriotic platform.
• Aimed to address fears caused by a weakening
  economy and a rising Communist party on the left.
  
• Rise of the propaganda wars on behalf of the
  Nazis was returned by the SDP.
• Sept 1930 elections Nazis get 28 of the vote.
• Turnout 94

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Radicalization of Politics

• Street rallies held by the SPD and the Nazis
  erupt in political violence newspapers stoke
  ideological differences.
• National government too weak to respond
  governing coalitions too weak to govern.
• SPD was pinched between the Communists on the
  Left and the Nazis on the right.
• Viewing the Nazis as an anti-system rather than a
  political threat, was a miscalculation.

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Radicalization of Politics

• 1931 SPD no longer able to match meeting
  schedule of the Nazis.
• Nazi petition drive fails to eject the SPD use
  of social pressure to gain adherents further
  crystallizes class divisions.
• Boycotts of businesses that did not showcase
  party symbols.
• Soup kitchens and civic organizations to aid the
  needy develop on the basis of party/class.
• Nazis begin to scapegoat Jewish citizens.

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Radicalization of Politics

• 1930 President begins ruling by decree.
• SPD disliked the president, but feared new
  elections would favor the Nazis.
• New presidential elections set for March 1932.
• Hindenburg (conservative) supported by the SPD
  and the center parties Hitler runs for the
  Nazis, Communists run their own candidate.
• Hindenburg wins but Hitler takes 51 of the vote
  Northeim.

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Political Extremism and Impasse

• Nazis use their majority in Northeim to purge SPD
  office holders.
• Nazis began to break labor to further undercut
  the SPD amongst workers.
• New Reichstag elections in July 1932 96 turnout
  statewide.
• Nazis take 62 in Northeim.
• Center parties are decimated.
• Nazis and Communists (KPD) obtain a negative
  majority in Berlin political impasses continues.
  

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Hitler Takes the Chancellorship

• As depression continues, and politics continues
  to fray, the Nazi party and the SPD boycott
  non-party businesses.
• Hitler appointed Chancellor in 1933, promising
  national unity, restoration of honor and economic
  renewal.
• These ends required the creation of a strong
  central government however.

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Burning of the Reichstag Building

• Burning of the Reichstag building provides fodder
  for Hitler to call for drastic measures.
• Communists were outlawed as a revolutionary
  force
• SPD tracts and meeting banned in Northeim.

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NSDAP Penetrating State

• March 1933 elections give NSDAP 44 of the seats
  support for their coalition rises to 52 of the
  vote.
• Legislature transfers legislative authority to
  cabinet.
• 1934 Hindenburg dies chancellorship and
  presidency fused.
• Hitler takes power dissolves all political
  parties except the NSDAP.
• Fuses the state with the NSDAP.

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NSDAP Penetrating Society

• Door to door searches for weapons assisted by
  community cohesion.
• Neighbors would advise other neighbors about
  flying the party flag.
• Society atomizes as the citizenry is to afraid to
  express anti-Nazi views.
• Public arrests of dissenters reinforced Nazi
  hold.
• Boycotts and social isolation of dissidents
  further strengthened Nazi hold on Northeim.

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NSDAP Penetrating Society

• The gradual expansion of state authority in the
  private sphere was met with little resistance.
• System of terror was coordinated with elaborate
  shows of support propaganda was critical.
• Control of media offered little in terms of
  alternative viewpoints.

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Decline of Weimar Economic Factors

• Fear of economic decline radicalized the middle
  classes.
• Blamed Treaty of Versailles and the SPD for
  economic malaise.
• Unemployment pushed for young men to join the
  Nazi party.

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Decline of Weimar Institutional Factors

• Political institutions and polarization made
  stable governing coalitions impossible.
• Far left and far right parties held a negative
  majority.
• Presidential-Parliamentarism and low electoral
  thresholds further undercut stable coalitions.
• Rule by decree also complicated governance.
• Inability to respond to economic crises fostered
  greater radicalization.

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Decline of Weimar Cultural Factors

• Associational participation, newspaper
  readership, turnout all high.
• But this civic culture reinforced rather than
  ameliorated divisions contributing to the greater
  radicalization of the system (direct challenge to
  Putnam).
• Citizens not exposed to alternative viewpoints
  via organizations, political parties, or
  newspapers.
• Large turnout represented anger/fear not
  community support.
• Social identity/cohesion arguably made the
  trampling of civil rights after Nazi ascendance
  easier.

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Conclusions Democratic Stability

• Economic development did not drive the decline,
  but economic stagnation/crisis ignited the spark.
• Institutions magnified rather than mitigated
  political tensions.
• Political culture made it easier for extremists
  to control society and more difficult for
  opposition to respond.
• In short, economics, institutions, and culture
  matter

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Next Lecture

• Theme Rationality of Mass Opinion
• Reader Caplan