Public Cynicism Research Articles

Political Institutions and the Malaise of East Asian New Democracies

Although quite a few third-wave democracies in Southern and Central Europe became consolidated within a decade of their origin, all of those in East Asia are still fragile and fledgling. Ever since South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the Philippines embarked on democratic transition or restoration more than a decade ago, elections have been regularly held, and democratic competition is widely considered the only path to power. Rough edges remain, however. Rules are stretched, even bent. Political stalemate tends to delay, if not prevent, timely policy action. And public cynicism toward underperforming, if not malfunctioning, democracy in these four polities is so pervasive and unnerving that pundits warn against a crisis of governance in East Asia's new democracies.

The Canadian Senate: Chamber of Sober Reflection or Loony Cousin Best Not Talked About

The Canadian Senate has been the object of much debate and scorn. An appointed body, the Senate has never successfully fulfilled its original purposes, namely to be a voice for regional and propertied interests. Its anti-democratic foundations have made the Senate easy prey for public cynicism, despite the fact that its appointed members are more reflective of the Canadian population than the elected members of House of Commons. There have been many attempts at Senate reform in the past quarter-century, none of which have been implemented. This article argues that most attempts at Senate reform have failed because they have been linked to larger constitutional reform packages. The best hope for change to the structure of the Senate lies in smaller, incremental moves that do not require amending the Canadian constitution.

Moral Atmosphere and Moral Influence Under China's Network Capitalism

A weak legal system, weak civic accountability, market distortions, public cynicism, and workforces lacking moral self-efficacy, present challenges to moral integrity in Chinese mainland enterprises. Our predominantly qualitative study, in Wuhan, of organizational moral atmosphere (OMA) in two large state-owned enterprises (SOEs), two smaller, shareholder invested SOEs, two foreign-invested joint venture companies (JVCs) and one private company, indicated that felt distributive inequity may have compounded these problems. Government-championed, in-company ideological propagation of avowed business morality appeared to have little impact on OMA, owing to normative incoherence. The JVCs, by adopting the foreign partners' system of rational-legal administration and internal justice, appeared to have found a relatively more effective approach to formal moral governance. Non-JVCs had a more punishment-oriented yet less rigorous approach to regulation, which was commended only at the private company, where personal share ownership gave middle and senior managers incentives to enforce discipline and thus minimize losses. Developmental and dialogue-based approaches to improving OMA were largely untried.

CITIZENSHIP, SCIENCE AND RISK

Shifting science-society relationships are highly relevant both to contemporary practices of citizenship and their expression, and to questions around the dynamics of ‘participation’. Just as political and economic changes are altering the contexts, spaces and ways in which people perceive and act on citizenship rights, so too are scientific and technological changes and the new risks and opportunities they present. Scientific and technological issues present particular challenges and opportunities for participation, associated on the one hand with claims to highly specialised, professionalised knowledge and expertise which may serve to exclude. At the same time, recent scientific controversies have also created new demands and opportunities for concerted citizen engagement in decision-making. At least in some contexts there is seen to be a new mood of public cynicism and critique of ‘expert’ institutions and their knowledges, and demands for new sorts of dialogue, and public empowerment in the scientific realm.

By Popular Demand: Revitalizing Representative Democracy through Deliberative Elections

John Gastil challenges conventional assumptions about public opinion, elections, and political expression in this persuasive treatise on how to revitalize the system of representative democracy in the United States. Gastil argues that American citizens have difficulty developing clear policy interests, seldom reject unrepresentative public officials, and lack a strong public voice. Our growing awareness of a flawed electoral system is causing increased public cynicism and apathy. The most popular reforms, however, will neither restore public trust nor improve representation. Term limits and campaign finance reforms will increase turnover, but they provide no mechanism for improved deliberation and accountability. Building on the success of citizen juries and deliberative polling, Gastil proposes improving our current process by convening randomly selected panels of citizens to deliberate for several days on ballot measures and candidates. Voters would learn about the judgments of these citizen panels through voting guides and possibly information printed on official ballots. The result would be a more representative government and a less cynical public. America has a long history of experimentation with electoral systems, and the proposals in By Popular Demand merit serious consideration and debate.

Public Access Broadcasting and Democratic Participation in the Age of Mediated Politics

This article presents the results of research carried out as part of the Economic and Social Research Council's Democracy and Participation programme. Drawing on new empirical data assembled by the authors from interviews with programme makers, public participants and members of the listening and viewing audience, it seeks to evaluate the role of political access broadcasting in the British democratic process, against the background of a perceived crisis of democratic participation. The article identifies the broadcasters' aims in the construction of political access programmes and traces recent trends in the development of the genre. It reports on public perceptions of the effectiveness of access in facilitating critical scrutiny of political elites, concluding that these programmes comprise a distinctive element of British political culture. In a political environment characterised by public cynicism toward politicians, access programmes represent an important space for public-politician interaction.

Reconsidering the Connection between Capacity and Governance

High levels of sub-national policy experimentation and public cynicism about politics and government, combined with significant challenges and opportunities for governance capacity such as regionalism, globalization, and technological change call for a reconsideration of the state of capacity and the capacity of the state. Crucial questions surrounding this re-assessment include: What is the difference between government and governance? Who governs in theory and in reality? How does governance now work? Can governance and capacity keep pace with change? Reconsideration of these and related questions yields the conclusion that governance and capacity are intimately connected and that innovative, simultaneous blending of public management and civic capacities is needed to build trust and govern effectively under new and challenging conditions.

A Spiral of Cynicism for Some: The Contingent Effects of Campaign News Frames on Participation and Confidence in Government

This article explores the impact of strategy-based campaign coverage on turnout and confidence in government. Recent theoretical advances suggest that variables such as sophistication and involvement frequently moderate media exposure effects. We hypothesize that the impact of strategy frames will be moderated by political involvement and sophistication. In an experiment, we precisely isolate and manipulate particular story elements that have been said to foster public cynicism: the strategic interpretation of candidate motives, the presence of polling results, and the use of war or game metaphors to describe the campaign. Relative to the issue-oriented coverage, strategy frames boost the number of strategy-based comments people offer when describing the campaign and depress issue-based commentary. As expected, framing effects on turnout, trust in government, civic duty, and the perceived meaningfulness of elections are moderated by involvement and sophistication. Nonpartisans and those with less than a college degree are significantly demobilized and alienated by strategy-based coverage, while partisans and the highly educated are mostly unaffected.

Disaffected democracies: what's troubling the trilateral countries?

It is a notable irony that as democracy replaces other forms of governing throughout the world, citizens of the most established and prosperous democracies (the United States and Canada, Western European nations, and Japan) increasingly report dissatisfaction and frustration with their governments. Here, some of the most influential political scientists at work today examine why this is so in a volume unique in both its publication of original data and its conclusion that low public confidence in democratic leaders and institutions is a function of actual performance, changing expectations, and the role of information. The culmination of research projects directed by Robert Putnam through the Trilateral Commission and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, these papers present new data that allow more direct comparisons across national borders and more detailed pictures of trends within countries than previously possible. They show that citizen disaffection in the Trilateral democracies is not the result of frayed social fabric, economic insecurity, the end of the Cold War, or public cynicism. Rather, the contributors conclude, the trouble lies with governments and politics themselves. The sources of the problem include governments' diminished capacity to act in an interdependent world and a decline in institutional performance, in combination with new public expectations and uses of information that have altered the criteria by which people judge their governments. Although the authors diverge in approach, ideological affinity, and interpretation, they adhere to a unified framework and confine themselves to the last quarter of the twentieth century. This focus--together with the wealth of original research results and the uniform strength of the individual chapters--sets the volume above other efforts to address the important and increasingly international question of public dissatisfaction with democratic governance. This book will have obvious appeal for a broad audience of political scientists, politicians, policy wonks, and that still sizable group of politically minded citizens on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific.

Overreporting Voting: Campaign Media, Public Mood, and the Vote

This study used regional telephone survey data collected after the 1996 U.S. presidential election to examine how two possibly important affective variables public mood and political cynicism predict actual as compared with self-reported voting. Public mood, a construct introduced by Rahn, Kroeger, and Kite (1996) to suggest how affective processes may play a role in political behavior, is shown to have two distinct but positively correlated dimensions, one positive and one negative. After demographic variables were controlled, perceived media usefulness predicted positive mood about the presidential election, which in turn predicted self-reported voting. Negative campaign attitude predicted negative mood, which, in turn, influenced actual but not self-reported voting. Political cynicism, although correlated with both positive and negative public mood, predicted neither measure of voting. The bifurcation of influence of negative and positive public mood about elections may explain why researchers have often shown positive affect to influence voting (as measured by self-report), and why political consultants have continued to rely on negative campaigning and the reported increases in negative feelings it engenders in voters to influence actual votes.

Improving Ethical Conduct in Public Service: Korean Anticorruption Initiatives in an International Context

The degree may vary over time, but corruption is a salient part of Korean society. The new administration is committed to establishing higher standards of conduct despite prevailing public cynicism about reform. The purpose of this article is to show the direction of government initiatives used to reduce improper practices. This article analyzes ideas on the perception of corruption based on data from Transparency International, looks at the new Korean government’s views of corruption, and discusses Korea’s anticorruption initiatives and system of legal enforcement. The conclusion offers further suggestions to bring Korea’s anticorruption goals in line with international standards.

Fair Division: A Format for the Debate on the Format of Debates

In 1960, a televised presidential debate, four of them in fact, occurred for the first time. This came to seem, despite initial expectations, a mere blip in electoral history until the debates of 1976. During the intervening era, strategic political maneuvering was limited almost solely to the question of whether to debate, the answer always being resoundingly negative. In 1964, 1968, and 1972, the front-runner declined the invitation to debate to preserve his status as such (Alexander and Margolis 1978, 19). By 1980, the simple tactical choice of whether to debate had matured into an intricate series of strategic decisions—a yes/no question had been transformed into a debate on debates and their format. Concerns ranged from the number of debates and their timing to the use of props. By 1984, debates had become a campaign staple, and, by 1996, the debate over debate format had become a “campaign ritual” (Lewis 1996a). No current commentator is surprised, as was one of the panelists in one of the 1980 debates, by “how much the format is the debate” (Golden 1980). An editorial described the situation one year (and, without context, it is difficult to tell which) as follows:A standard was set for participation by minor candidates—and then faithlessly abandoned. The major candidates maneuvered … baldly for advantage…. There was endless bickering about format and bargaining over the questioners. All of which produced wide public cynicism. There has to be a better way. (“Repair” 1980)I will argue that there is indeed a better way to handle this metadebate.

Fair Division: A Format for the Debate on the Format of Debates

In 1960, a televised presidential debate, four of them in fact, occurred for the first time. This came to seem, despite initial expectations, a mere blip in electoral history until the debates of 1976. During the intervening era, strategic political maneuvering was limited almost solely to the question of whether to debate, the answer always being resoundingly negative. In 1964, 1968, and 1972, the front-runner declined the invitation to debate to preserve his status as such (Alexander and Margolis 1978, 19). By 1980, the simple tactical choice of whether to debate had matured into an intricate series of strategic decisions—a yes/no question had been transformed into a debate on debates and their format. Concerns ranged from the number of debates and their timing to the use of props. By 1984, debates had become a campaign staple, and, by 1996, the debate over debate format had become a “campaign ritual” (Lewis 1996a). No current commentator is surprised, as was one of the panelists in one of the 1980 debates, by “how much the format is the debate” (Golden 1980). An editorial described the situation one year (and, without context, it is difficult to tell which) as follows:A standard was set for participation by minor candidates—and then faithlessly abandoned. The major candidates maneuvered … baldly for advantage…. There was endless bickering about format and bargaining over the questioners. All of which produced wide public cynicism. There has to be a better way. (“Repair” 1980)I will argue that there is indeed a better way to handle this metadebate.

“Damned if you do, damned if you don't”: government and the conundrum of consultation in the environmental sector

Abstract: This paper examines three separate episodes of government consultation in the environmental sector involving the activities of a chemical plant owned by Uniroyal Chemical Ltd. in Elmira, a small town in southwestern Ontario near Kitchener. The first episode involved the creation in the early 1980s of two advisory committees at two separate levels of government (municipal and provincial) in order to explore the options available for containing the spread of contaminants from the Uniroyal site. During this episode, these two advisory committees made recommendations to the provincial Ministry of the Environment (moe) that conflicted with the advice of its own officials. Ultimately, the consultative process merely exacerbated what was an already tense situation. The second episode centred on Uniroyal's proposal in 1989 to build an incinerator on its site in order to dispose of the plant's waste products. The final episode in this drama began in 1992, when yet another advisory committee was created by the moe to monitor the situation at Uniroyal. On the basis of our examination, we conclude that if a government decides not to clarify the intended role of a citizens' advisory group and not to devolve real decision‐making power to it, then it can expect to reap the unfortunate consequences of heightened mistrust and public cynicism. Attempts by a government simply to inform one of its creations (an advisory group) are likely to be viewed as manipulation by the members of a group, which inevitably becomes a bit like Frankenstein's monster, endowed with a will and a life of its own.Sommaire:Dans cet article, on examine trois épisodes de consultation government‐tale dans le secteur de l'environnement, à l'egard des activites d'une usine chimique appurtenant àUniroyal Chemical Ltd.aG Elmira, petite ville du Sud‐Ouest de I'Ontario, près de Kitchener. Dans le cadre du premier épisode, on a Créé vers le début des

Rational Choice Theory and the Evaluation of Public Policy

The dominance of rational choice‐inspired models of policy development, implementation, and evaluation has grown dramatically over the years as a challenge to traditional, pluralist politics. In this article, we analyze the theoretical foundations of the rational choice perspective and its criticism of pluralist politics. We explore the values inherent in the rational choice perspective and suggest that they feed into growing public cynicism about government and lead to a conservative policy agenda of less government. We then develop an unusual argument that the very tools of rational choice analysis and its values actually produce far more government involvement than expected. by examining school voucher programs. We conclude by making a case for pluralist politics as a more appropriate means for addressing the concerns of classical liberals and others about excessive government intrusion.

Appearance or reality? Political parody on the web in campaign ‘96

The World Wide Web and other forms of Internet communication provide a new venue for political discourse. The present study surveyed Web postings relevant to the 1996 presidential race between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. It identified two types of sites. Nonparodic or serious sites emulated traditional news such as is found in newspapers, periodicals, and television news documentaries. Parodic sites sought to entertain rather than inform the reader and to hold reader attention. Parodic sites ostensibly exposed candidates’ questionable practices by way of allegation, innuendo, expose, parody, and slander. To expose deceptive practices, the authors of parodic Websites themselves engaged in deception. Political parodic Websites presented a postmodern communication environment where the identity of the author, the stability of the text, and the audience itself were all fragmented. Browsing these political Websites was a recursive activity where one could participate in pseudo polls, sign bogus petitions, and play political computer games. Such activities provided the illusion of political participation and did little to decrease public cynicism about politics or the political process.

Ethics and Professional Values in Business and Industry in India

Torn between the two extremes of one's own cultural heritage and the demands of the materialistic values being imitated from the Western societies, an Indian today seems to have temporarily lost his or her moorings. Verily, the current scenario is of confusion and extreme public cynicism about issues such as ethics and values. Businessmen, like human beings in other spheres of life, too face the dilemma arising out of the eternal conflict between the ends and the means. Business ethics and values might just be a new field focusing on age-old dilemmas. What makes the topic of ethics and values in business specially relevant and topical in the present context in India is fact that we are on the threshold of environmental changes of far-reaching consequences. This article is addressed to the subset of the larger issues of ethics and values in life in general. The setting is the business and industry in India in the 1990s and beyond. The basic suggestion of this article relates to the felt need that there has to be a greater understanding of the twin and interrelated issues of ethics and professional values in business and industry in India.

Reformation of the Guam legislature: The politics of style over substance

Public cynicism regarding governmental inefficiency, waste and corruption in the US territory of Guam has resulted in the introduction of a series of initiatives intended to reform the local legislature, the Guam Senate. The initiatives recommend restructuring the legislative branch by reducing the total number of senators and limiting the number of consecutive terms that can be served in office. This research analyses these proposals in order to determine their advisability. The conclusion reached is that a modest reduction in the size of the senate is appropriate, legally mandated term limits are not. In the final analysis, legislative reform can be reduced to instrumental tinkering while the most serious problem facing the island is a resolution of the systemic issue of political status.

Dealing with Cynical Citizens

Widespread concern exists about public cynicism toward government (Gore, 1994; Dubnick and Rosenbloom, 1995; Greider, 1992; Lipset and Schneider, 1987; Ruscio, 1995; Cisneros and Parr, 1990). Manifestations of public cynicism include pervasive beliefs that government policies and public officials are corrupt, inept, or out to take advantage of citizens (Johnson, 1993). Such disillusionment causes alienation and disengagement and is therefore of key interest to public administration and processes of democratic governance. Yet, little is written about the role of public administrators in shaping public attitudes. Much of what is written focuses on typologies of citizen roles (Frederickson, 1991; Luton, 1993) and administrative processes for managing citizen involvement (Stivers, 1994; Thomas, 1993; Box, 1992). This article responds to the need for a theory of citizen cynicism that is relevant to public administration. It also reports on the results of a national survey among city managers and chief administrative officers about perceptions of trust in local government. It finds that cities that foster positive citizen attitudes through a variety of strategies of participation, information, and reputation experience less cynicism than cities that do not. The effect of community conditions on trust is also examined. A Theory of Cynicism Cynicism is discussed in general terms in the literatures of trust and social capital. Many authors argue that all human relations and exchanges (economic, political, and social) require trust that promises will be honored, and that individuals are not taken advantage of (Coleman, 1990; Putnam, 1993; Bellah, et al., 1991; Mansbridge, 1990). Trust is seen as purposive, a lubricant of relations. It also provides a sense of belonging that serves the emotional needs of individuals. Cynicism is defined as low trust, specifically, a pervasive "disbelief in the possibility of good" in dealing with others (Damon, 1995; Barber, 1983; Merton, 1957). Cynicism increases social distance and diminishes the public spirit (Gore, 1994). "Social capital" refers to the number of trusting and mutually supportive relationships that members of a group draw on in realizing their economic, social, and political aims (Loury, 1987). Individuals in groups with low levels of social capital often have too few interdependent relations to achieve their goals and are likely to experience disenfranchisement. Disappointment over unrealized goals contributes to cynical attitudes, which, in turn serve as barriers to forming productive relations, thus causing social capital to further erode in a vicious circle. Cynical attitudes toward government often center on the integrity, purpose, and effectiveness of government and its officials (Starobin, 1995; Durant, 1995; O'Connell, Holzman, and Armandi, 1986; Jurie, 1988). The literature makes a distinction between ardent cynicism and milder forms. Ardent cynicism is usually linked to ideological beliefs that are highly critical of government, for example, "government is always out to get the ordinary citizen." Facts are used selectively to justify claims that "nothing ever changes" and that authorities use smoke and mirrors to appease and mislead the masses. Milder expressions of cynicism are often characterized by beliefs that are less critical of government (e.g., "government tries its best, but it just doesn't have the resources"), and by beliefs that give greater weight to facts (e.g., "government doesn't deliver on its promises: the roads are still not fixed"). Because of the greater dependence on facts, the milder form of cynicism may be more open to influence by reason.(1) Theories of human motivation and behavior adapted from organizational behavior (McClelland, 1985; Bianco, 1994; Robertson and Tang, 1995) suggest that citizens question their relationship with government and experience disenfranchisement when the following conditions are present: (1) citizens believe that local government is using its power against them or otherwise not helping them; (2) citizens do not feel part of local government, or they feel misunderstood or ignored, and (3) citizens find local government services and policies to be ineffective. …

Canada and the World at Risk: Depression, War, and Isolationism for the 21st Century?

Canada's statistical profile in the post -- Cold War era is in some important respects coming to resemble the summary depictions of life in the dirty 'thirties. Never in the post -- World War II era have there been so many Canadians out of work or 'casualized' or 'discouraged.' Almost five million Canadians, including nearly one-fifth of Canadian children, live below the poverty line. At no time since World War II has income polarization been as severe between top and bottom wage earners. Never before has the blinkered, stunted, soulless ideology of American neoconservatism so dominated the Canadian political landscape, bringing with it such extraordinary levels of governmental irresponsibility and public cynicism. That the damage inflicted upon American society is equally if not more grave is no cause for consolation or resignation: it merely adds to the danger of North American disengagement from global security management in years to come. For Canada's foreign and defence policies, the state of affairs is even worse than the condition of the national economy. Not since the 1930s has Canada's international presence seemed so wan, so self-enfeebled, so marginal. With the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATTA) under implementation, foreign policy has been reduced to Team Canada trade missions to communist and ethnically repressive states (China and Indonesia) and fervent, well-intentioned but largely irrelevant speeches on disarmament and peacekeeping at a debt-ridden, paralyzed, and imploding United Nations. Thanks to the triumph of quasi-pacifist doctrine of the style found in Canada 21,(f.1) the future of the Canadian armed forces is unusually bleak. The foundations of Canada's international security policy have been eroded by profoundly unwise decisions over the past three years to 'restructure' the military for what politicians and policy-makers in Ottawa foolishly believe will be a comparatively benign post-Cold War era. The following developments in particular have done grave damage to Canadian power, position, and influence over the 'high' political issues on the global agenda: 1 The elimination of Canada's armoured firepower despite the offer of hundreds of modern American main battle tanks at little more than the cost of shipment in 1991-2. Modern tanks are essential protection for Canadian peacekeepers who may be sent into high-risk 'peacekeeping' environments and if Canada is to have the ability to participate in 'high intensity' military actions for 'peace enforcement' missions, whether under the auspices of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or the United Nations. Canadian public opinion, no less than American or Western European public opinion, will not tolerate significant battlefield casualties.(f.2) Canadian forces must therefore be as fully protected in their duties abroad as possible. Forgoing heavy armour seriously compromises the long-term political sustainability of sending Canadian personnel on both peacekeeping and peace-enforcement actions. 2 The painfully slow process to replace the cancelled EH-101 helicopter has for many years compelled the Canadian navy to use marginally airworthy and therefore dangerous Sea King helicopters on its new frigates for many years until a replacement is finally acquired. Until new shipborne helicopters are fully integrated into the Canadian navy's operations, the effectiveness of the new frigates for anti-submarine warfare will be dramatically reduced and will inhibit the government from sending them on serious, high-risk missions, whether to the Persian Gulf or to the waters adjacent to Korea. 3 The apparent decision not to replace the now obsolete national submarine capability, despite the rare opportunity provided by Britain in 1994-6 to purchase modern diesel-electric boats at a fraction of their real cost. Modern submarines are an essential component of any credible ability to control Canadian waters, and even the ancient Oberon-class boats were almost certainly a factor in deterring Spanish escalation of the turbot 'war' in 1995. …