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Political participation and procedural utility: An empirical study
Author(s) -
STUTZER ALOIS,
FREY BRUNO S.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.2006.00303.x
Subject(s) - politics , democracy , expected utility hypothesis , process (computing) , economics , positive economics , public economics , social psychology , psychology , political science , computer science , law , mathematical economics , operating system
. Democracy can be characterized by policy outcomes as well as governmental processes. In this article, it is argued that people have preferences about both aspects and that they derive utility from the processes involved in decision making over and above the utility gained from outcomes. The authors study political participation possibilities as an important source of procedural utility. To distinguish between outcome and process utility, they take advantage of the fact that nationals can participate in political decision making, while foreigners are excluded and thus cannot enjoy the respective procedural utility. Utility is assumed to be measurable by individually reported subjective well‐being. As an additional indicator for procedural utility, reported belief in political influence is analyzed.