The general long-term trend to a loss of faith in the political institutions of European and American citizens is one of the variants of the results of a thesis carried out by Antonio Manuel Jaime Castillo and supervised by professor Julio Iglesias de Usell, of the department of Sociology of the Universidad de Granada. The researcher explains in his research work titled “The change of attitudes towards the State in Europe and the United States. A comparative study” that this tendency is due to the social and cultural changes occurred in the western countries in the last three decades.
“In the last three decades, Antonio M. Jaime Castillo says, there has occurred a considerable loss of faith of citizens in their political institutions in most western countries. In the short-term, political faith is closely associated with the evolution of economic cycles. When the economic situation is negative the faith in political institutions reduces, and it grows when the economic conditions improve”. The most influential variable on political confidence is the unemployment rate. “Even so, Professor Jaime Castillo explains, there are considerable differences between the different countries, depending on the type of electoral system, tax burden or the structure of the welfare state”.
The study carried out by Antonio M. Jaime Castillo identifies the factors which explain the evolution of the faith on political institutions in the last decades in the advanced industrialized countries. And he explains, on the one hand, how economic cycles affect the basic political attitudes. And, on the other hand, how adaptation possibilities of the political institutions identify with a changing social environment in order to get through to the citizens´ demands.
According to the researcher of the Universidad de Granada “there has been, on the one hand, a growth of the demands and expectations of citizens towards the state, in the context of the growth and institutionalization of the welfare state. But, due to the tax limitations of the State it can not satisfy the demands, which leads to a frustration of the expectations and a loss of political faith. And, on the other hand, there has been a change in the political basic values of Western citizens”
The author of the research work says that in Europe and the United States there is a tendency towards freedom and individualism that erodes the respect towards authority traditional institutions: “Citizens feel free nowadays and they are more demanding too and, therefore, more critical when it comes to assessing the functioning of political institutions”. And he adds: “The lack of confidence in the political institutions does not involve a loss of legitimacy of democracy as a form of government, as Western citizens remain committed to democratic values. But it also has potentially dangerous effects: a lack of interest towards policy, loss of the parties´ capacity to mobilize the electorate and, in certain countries, the appearance of political anti-system parties which obtain parliamentary representation”.
Further information: Prof Antonio Manuel Jaime Castillo
Department of Sociology. Universidad de Granada
Phone numbers: 958 244140 / 246198.
E-mail: amjaime@ugr.es.
