3 - Measuring Citizenship Norms

Summary

Chapter 3 operationalizes and measures citizenship norms. I operationalize my conception of citizenship norms by examining items that make for a “good citizen” across three dimensions: behavior, liberal democratic beliefs, and conceptions of national belonging. I measure norms along fourteen different attributes of democratic citizenship, and present each in turn, both cross-case and over time. Then, I use factor analysis to explore the interrelationships among these fourteen attributes. This theory-driven exercise confirms that fourteen items group into three factors or dimensions of democratic citizenship norms. Finally, the chapter concludes with a test of how norms predict political behavior, illustrating congruity between ideas about what makes a good citizen and action, that is, what citizens do.