Politicians as cultural selectors: Favouring or discouraging youth participation

• Authors: Marco Boffi
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

An evolutionary perspective can be applied to the analysis of cultural phenomena to describe how inheritance mechanisms can account for the development of cultural traits in a given environment. This paper aims to describe the psychosocial functioning of the political system from this perspective, focusing on the role of politicians as cultural selectors. As they are in charge of legislation, politicians have a key role in steering the evolution of cultural norms. In particular they play a leading part in determining access to traditional forms of participation, such as parties. We interviewed a panel of political experts to explore the selective mechanisms shaping the Italian political system. The results show that co-option is the main method of selecting new members for parties, with the aim of keeping power within well-established structures. The specific features of the Italian political environment explain its decreasing ability to attract young activists.

Keywords

EN

cultural selection; political participation; civic participation; professional politics; activism; goodwork

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 325-334

Dates

published

2012-07-01

online

2012-06-25

Contributors

author

Marco Boffi

• University of Milan

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s13374-012-0027-y