Jacob Aars & Dag Arne Christensen

Putnam’s study of civic traditions in
Italian regions (1993)
 “Conditions for creating strong, responsive, effective representative institutions”
 The vibrancy of associational life affects institutional performance:
 The more associations within a community, the more responsive and effective government

A contextual argument
 Context matters?
 Vibrancy of associational life:
 Contextual or compositional explanation

A multilevel analysis
 The argument for individual-level dependent variables
 The effects of institutional performance feeds back into the political system only through citizens’ perceptions
 Creates demands/support

Three dependent variables
 Effectiveness: Councillors’ knowledge about local issues
 Effectiveness: Councillors’ ability to solve problems
 Responsiveness: Councillors willingsness to listen to citizens’ views

Data
 Individual level
 Largest ever Norwegian survey of citizen attitudes towards public services and the political system
 12.659 respondents
 Municipal level
 The Central Coordinating Register for Legal
Entities (Brønnøysund Register Centre)
 Municipal-level data from the Regional Database,
Norwegian Social Science Databases

Results
Table X. Multi-Level regressions: Final models with individual- and municipal-level effects
Constant
Individual effects
Complain
Political interest
University education
Progress Party
Red-green parties
Male
Age
Income
Active resident org.
Active sports org.
Active unions
Active music org.
Active state church
Active other rel/livssyn.
Municipal effects
Number of organisations
Population (logged)
Number of parties
University education
Poverty
Individual-level variance
Municipal-level variance
ICC
N Level-1
N Level-2
Knowledge
5.100****
-0.490***
0.071***
-0.009
-0.274***
0.145***
-0.139***
0.008***
-0.007
-0.031
-0.006
-0.025
0.040
0.065*
0.249***
-0.212***
-0.153***
0.078
3.987
8170
408
Capacity
4.936***
-0..481***
0.067***
0.002
-0.294***
0.197***
-0.146***
0.009***
-0.017**
-0.019
0.006
0.014
0.052
0.078**
0.195***
-0.166***
-0.107***
-0.098***
.0021***
-0.124**
0.016**
0.004 -0.016
Random effects (variance components)
1.890 1.841
0.137
6.935
8867
410
1.948
0.121
5.833
8890
409
Note: Table entries are maximum likelihood estimates. *** p< 0.01, ** p< 0.05, * p<0.10
Listen
5.015****
-0.481***
0.094***
0.068**
-0.352***
0.136***
-0.127***
0.007***
-0.000
0.006
0.027
0.037
0.076
0.041
0.235***
-0.164***
-0.135***
-0.118***
0.019***
-0.005