Palavras-chave
Como Citar
Resumo
Não é novidade que o cidadão brasileiro, como outros vivendo em países democráticos, em média sabem pouco sobre seus governos e sobre as orientações ideológicas da maioria dos candidatos e partidos políticos. No entanto, poucos pesquisadores estudaram de maneira sistemática as conseqüências da falta de informação política para a vida democrática. Segundo alguns, a falta de informação afeta de maneira importante as atitudes políticas dos eleitores. Já para outros, a informação política não é relevante para formação de opiniões. O artigo examina essa questão no Brasil, usando pela primeira vez dados de um experimento conduzido em uma pesquisa de opinião pública realizada em 2004. Mais especificamente, examinamos como a informação sobre o governo federal brasileiro afeta as preferências políticas do cidadão em termos de gastos públicos. No experimento utilizado, alguns
participantes receberam informação sobre as fontes de renda do governo federal, suas despesas e políticas públicas, enquanto outros entrevistados não receberam qualquer informação adicional. Os resultados indicam que os participantes que receberam informação política preferem menos impostos e
redução nos gastos públicos daqueles que não receberam informação política. Estes resultados têm conseqüências importantes para o estudo do processo democrático, pois indicam que uma cidadania mais informada tem atitudes e preferências políticas distintas de uma menos informada.
Abstract:
We know that Brazilian citizens, just like those living in other democracies of the world, know very little about politics. We know less, however, about the consequences of political ignorance on the democratic process? Some scholars argue that the lack of political information has minimal effect of people’s political attitudes and behaviors. Others, however, claim that the effects are substantial. In this paper, we examine this question using a survey-experiment conducted in Brazil in 2004. Specifically, we explore how information about the federal government affects attitudes toward government spending and
taxing policies. The experiment has a control group and a treatment group where subjects in the latter were provided political information before measuring their preferred level of government spending and taxing. Results indicate that those who received political information tended to prefer less government
spending and taxing, as compared to those who did not receive any information. These results carry important implications for the democratic process because they indicate that a more knowledgeable Brazilian electorate would hold different political preferences.
Keywords: public opinion; political information; political attitudes; public expenditure
Referências
ALMEIDA, A. A Cabeça do Brasileiro. São Paulo: Record, 2007.
ALLPORT, G. W. Attitudes. In: MURCHISON, C. (ed.). Handbook of Social Psychology. Worcester: Clark University Press, 798-844, 1935.
ALTHAUS, S. L. “Information Effects in Collective Preferences.” American Political Science Review, 92: 545-558, 1998.
AMES, B; BAKER A. e RENNÓ, L. The Quality of Elections in Brazil: Policy, Performance, Pageantry, or Pork? In: Kingstone, Peter and Power, Timothy (eds.). Democratic Brazil Revisited. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008.
BAKER, A; AMES, B. e RENNÓ, L. “Social Context and Campaign Volatility in New Democracies: Networks and Neighborhoods in Brazil’s 2002 Elections.” American Journal of Political Science. 50:2, p. 2006.
BARTELS, L. M. “Uninformed Voters: Information Effects in Presidential Elections.” American Journal of Political Science, 40: 194-230, 1996.
BENNETT, S. E. “Trends in American’s Political Information.” American Politics Quarterly, 17: 422-35, 1989.
BOWLER, S and DONOVAN, T. Demanding Choices: Opinion, Voting, and Direct Democracy. Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Press, 1998.
BRADY, H. E., and SNIDERMAN, P. M. “Attitude Attribution: A Group Basis for Political Reasoning.” American Political Science Review, 79: 1071-78, 1985.
CONVERSE, P. E. The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics. In: APTER, D. E. (ed.). Ideology and Discontent. New York: Free Press, 1964.
DELLI CARPINI, M. X., and KEETER, S. What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters. New Haven: Yale University Press,1996.
DESPOSATO, S. Estratégia Eleitoral com Representação Proporcional de Lista Aberta e Distritos Uninominais: Subeleitorados e Comunicação Política. In: INÁCIO, M. e RENNÓ, L. (eds.). Legislativo Brasileiro em Perspectiva Comparada. Belo Horizonte: Editora da UFMG, 2009.
DRUCKMAN, J. N., GREEN, D. P; KUKLINSKI J. H; e LUPIA, A. “The Growth and Development of Experimental Research in the American Political Science Review.” American Political Science Review, 100: 627-636, 2006.
FAZIO, R. H. On the Functionality of Attitudes: The Role of Attitude Accessibility, In: PRATKANIS, A.R; BRECKLER, S.J. and GREENWALD, A.G. (eds.). Attitude Structure and Function. Hillsdale: Erlbaum, 153-179, 1989.
GILENS, M. “Political Ignorance and Collective Policy Preferences.” American Political Science Review, 95: 379-396, 2001.
HUCKFELDT, R. and SPRAGUE, J. Citizens, Politics, and Social Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
LUPIA, A. “Shortcut versus Encyclopedias: Information and Voting Behavior in California Insurance Reform Elections.” American Political Science Review, 88: 63- 76, 1994.
LUSKIN, R. C. and FISHKIN. J. S. “Deliberative Polling, Public Opinion, and Democracy: The Case of the National Issues Convention.” Paper presented at the American Association for Public Opinion Research Annual Meeting in St.-Louis, MO, 1998.
LUSKIN, R. C; FISHKIN, J. S. and JOWELL, R. “Considered Opinions: Deliberative Polling in the U.K.”, British Journal of Political Science, 32: 455-487, 2002.
PAGE, B. I, and SHAPIRO, R. Y. The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans’ Policy Preferences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
POPKIN, S. L. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
PORTO, M. P. Televisão e política no Brasil: A Rede Globo e as interpretacões da audiência. Rio de Janeiro: E-papers, 2007.
RENNÓ, L. “Desigualdade e informação política: as eleições brasileiras de 2002.” Dados (Rio de Janeiro), 50: 721-55, 2007.
RENNÓ, L. “Os militantes são mais informados? Desigualdade e informação política nas eleições de 2002.” Opinião Pública 12: 329-47, 2006.
RENNÓ, L. Atalhos Cognitivos em Contextos Eleitorais Complexos: As eleições de 2002 do Legislativo Brasileiro. In: INÁCIO, M. e RENNÓ, L. (eds.). Legislativo Brasileiro em Perspectiva Comparada. Belo Horizonte, Editora da UFMG, 2009.
SCHUMAN, H. e STANLEY P. Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys: Experiments on Question Form, Wording and Content. New York: Academic Press, 1981.
SCHWART, N. e BOHNER, G. The Construction of Attitudes. In: TESSER, A. and SCHWARTZ, N. (eds.) Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology: Intraindividual Processes. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2001.
SHERIF, M. e HADLEY, C. The Psychology of Ego-Involvements: Social Attitudes and Identification. New York: Wiley, 1947.
SHUGART, M.; MELODY, V. and SUOMINEN, K. “Looking for Locals: Voter Information Demands and Personal Vote-Earning Attributes of Legislators under Proportional Representation.” American Journal of Political Science, 49:2, 2005.
SNIDERMAN, P. M; BRODY, R. A. and TETLOCK P. E. Reasoning and Choice: Explorations in Political Psychology. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
STRACK, F. and MARTIN, L. “Thinking, Judging, and Communicating: A Process Account of Context Effects in Attitude Surveys.” In: HIPPLER, H; SCHWARTZ, N. and SUDMAN, S. (eds.). Social Information Processing and Survey Methodology. New York: Springler Verlag, 1987.
TOURANGEAU, R e RIPS, L. J. and RASINSKI, K. The Psychology of Survey Response, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
WILSON, T. and HODGES, S. Attitudes as Temporary Constructs. In: TESSER, A. and MARTIN, L. (eds.), The Construction of Social Judgment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1992.
ZALLER, J. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
ZALLER, J; and FELDMAN, S. “A Simple Theory of the Survey Response: Answering Questions versus Revealing Preferences.” American Journal of Political Science, 36: 579-616, 1992.
A Opinião Pública utiliza a licença do Creative Commons (CC), preservando assim, a integridade dos artigos em ambiente de acesso aberto.
Downloads
