Does Historical Legacy Matter? Comparing Political Discussion in Advanced and Developing Democracies
Posted: 22 Feb 2011
Abstract
Does historical political legacy influence current rates of political discussion, and if so, for how long does a historical legacy have an impact? That is, does a country’s former regime type continue to influence this type of interpersonal interaction even after its demise? We examine the role of historical political legacy by modeling rates of political discussion in advanced and developing European democracies, focusing especially on the latter. We hypothesize that for respondents of eastern European countries 1) the effects of socialization under communism on current rates of political discussion should vary by the type of regime and 2) should be greater for older generations, as they were socialized and educated under the former regime. We test our theories with the Eurobarometer surveys, finding limited evidence that the former regime of a country impacts its current rates of political discussion. Moreover, the results are somewhat unexpected, as they neither fit well with our expectations regarding regime type, nor break cleanly along generational lines. Models predicting political discussion in western European countries are presented for comparison.
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