Abstract
This paper empirically evaluates the idea that individual level political tolerance is influenced by the overall tolerance in a given society. The expectation is that more tolerant attitudes would be developed as a consequence of exposure to a social environment in which people in general are more inclined to accept freedom of speech, also when a specific message challenges one’s own values and beliefs. A theoretical learning model is formulated, according to which more broad-minded and permissive attitudes, from a democratic point of view, are adopted as a result of (1) an adjustment stimulated by mere observation of an overall high-level of political tolerance in society (‘passive learning’), and (2) an adjustment due to cognition and interaction within important spheres in society (‘active learning’). Using survey data, we explore empirically how length of residence among immigrants in the high-tolerance country of Sweden is related to measures of political tolerance. Further, we examine to what extent a time-related effect is mediated through participation in a set of ‘learning institutions’—focusing on activities related to education, working-life, civil society and political involvement. In concert with expectations, the empirical findings suggest that a positive effect of time in Sweden on political tolerance may be explained by a gradual adoption of the principle that political rights should be recognized. Importantly, however, such an adoption seems to require participation in activities of learning institutions, as we find that passive learning in itself is not sufficient.
Highlights
Does an overall tolerant social environment serve as a seedbed, in which initially narrow-minded sentiments gradually wither away? In this paper, we explore differences in political tolerance, challenging assumptions of rigidity in the level of tolerance acquired early in life (e.g. Gibson, 2011, pp. 419–420)
In this paper, we have explored the idea that more politically tolerant attitudes may be developed as a consequence of exposure to a high-tolerant social environment
Utilizing a dynamic feature of these data, we empirically evaluated the importance of length of residence in Sweden—and residence in a comparatively speaking high-tolerance society
Summary
Does an overall tolerant social environment serve as a seedbed, in which initially narrow-minded sentiments gradually wither away? In this paper, we explore differences in political tolerance, challenging assumptions of rigidity in the level of tolerance acquired early in life (e.g. Gibson, 2011, pp. 419–420). 99), we find that non-European immigrants from countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as immigrants from Eastern Europe (the ‘south’ and ‘east’ categories, respectively, specified in previous section) score almost 10 percentage points lower than native Swedes While these differences are highly statistically significant (p < .001, in both cases), there is no distinguishable difference in political tolerance between the Sweden-born population and immigrants from the Western world. The coefficient is no longer statistically significant This result supports H2: A considerable part of the difference in political tolerance between immigrants with varying length of residence in Sweden seems to be explained by variations in institutional involvement. With the exception of activity in voluntary associations (a variable for which no direct effect is discernible in Table 1), the results suggest that institutional involvement provides active learning in line with theoretical assumptions—either by means of education in a more narrow sense, or as by-product of social interaction with people of different backgrounds.. Such a development is slow, and seems to require active input via educational institutions and workplaces, and preferably that immigrants make use of their democratic rights by active political involvement
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