Comportement politique/sociologie

F08 - Society and the Individual

Date: May 31 | Heure: 08:45am to 10:15am | Location: Classroom - CL 317 Room ID:15759

Chair/Président/Présidente : Jason Roy (Wilfrid Laurier University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Angelia Wagner (University of Alberta)

A Distinct Society? An Exploration of the Social Capital Differential of Quebec: Aengus Bridgman (McGill University), Rosalie Nadeau (McGill University), Dietlind Stolle (McGill University)
Abstract: Following recent public debate, we examine an alleged social capital differential between Quebec and the Rest of Canada. The literature has found lower levels of generalized trust and social generosity in Quebec, but explanations offered are diverse and conjectural with historical, sociological and political causes all in contention. We test several contextual and compositional factors, including language, religion and religiosity, ethnicity, and neighbourhood-level measures of diversity that shape generalized trust and provide several robustness checks. These explanations are tested using pooled data from three waves (2003, 2008, 2013) of the Canadian General Social Survey linked with precise measures of neighbourhood-level ethnic and linguistic diversity drawn from the 2001, 2006 and 2011 Canadian censuses. Our unprecedented large sample (N ~ 70,000, Quebec ~20,000) allows for us to uncover important substantive and robust results at both individual and relatively small geographic levels of analysis. Our analysis shows that Quebec presents differential social capital from the Rest of Canada even when accounting for contextual and compositional factors; we look at further explanations of this differential. A novel contribution of this work is an examination across both ethnic and linguistically-dominant groups as well as their minority counterparts. Our findings also offer additional insights into the impact of increasing societal diversity on attitudinal and behavioral norms.

Rules for Recruitment, Deliberative Consensus, and the Social Organization of Governments: Investigating the Political Determinants of Population Health: Andrew Patterson (University of Alberta)
Abstract: A burgeoning research area asks whether political factors can affect population health. Risk of losing a forthcoming election, for instance, arguably motivates leaders in democracies to adopt policies that best promote health. However, less population health research considers more specific roles in democratic governments or other, unelected roles. To address these gaps, this study compares cross-national life expectancies and infant mortality rates across 161 countries according to political data drawn from the Varieties of Democracy Project. A series of regression models test whether population health is better in countries with 1) proportional and/or mixed-member electoral rules and 2) meritocratic recruitment of civil servants. Subsequent models test whether 3) government effectiveness (or its obverse, corruption) and 4) deliberative consensus (or its obverse, consolidation of policymaking power) may explain relationships between institutional characteristics and population health. Additional analysis uses Bayesian structural equation models to test multiple pathways simultaneously. Preliminary results indicate that political corruption mediates a positive relationship between meritocratic recruitment of civil servants and population health. Proportional and mixed-member electoral rules correspond with better population health than majoritarian rules, as do processes of deliberative consensus-making in policy design. These relate to health independently, however, and the latter does not appear to be a strong mediator. Findings suggest population health may be traceable to institutional protocols that shape the roles of government actors, although further work is need to corroborate this view.