Research framework and broader academic knowledge base
Serbia: documented application of the same framework
What happens when people no longer believe that reporting a problem, voting, or speaking out can change anything?
When people do not believe that the application, vote or public advocacy can bring a result, they stop spending time and taking risks. The problem is less reported, fewer people come to meetings, the elections look solved in advance, and the institution gets less data and pressure to fix something.
The government then presents the absence of a reaction as proof that there is no problem or that the citizens support the existing situation. Thus, the sense of futility confirms itself. This is not the same as indifference: one can be deeply dissatisfied, but reasonably estimate that an individual move will not help him. To distinguish impotence from indifference, one should ask not only if someone is participating, but what he expects to happen if he tries and what price he expects to fail.
Someone can be less active due to lack of time, money or because he is satisfied. Therefore, one should distinguish the feeling of futility from ordinary indifference.
Works supporting this answer, with their evidence type and an explanation of how they relate to the claim.
joint analysis of results of many studies
Oser, J., Grinson, A., Boulianne, S. i Halperin, E. (2022), „How Political Efficacy Relates to Online and Offline Political Participation: A Multilevel Meta-analysis“, Political Communication 39(5): 607–633.
Oser, J., Grinson, A., Boulianne, S. i Halperin, E. (2022), "How Political Efficacy Relates to Online and Offline Political Participation: A Multilevel Meta-analysis", Political Communication 39(5): 607–633.
- Contribution to this answer
- A meta-analysis of 48 studies, with more than 51,000 respondents from 28 countries, finds that the sense of political effectiveness is associated with both online and offline political participation: people who believe more that they can understand politics and influence it participate more often. The work shows a strong connection, but does not prove that just raising this feeling automatically produces action.
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Miller, D. T. (2023), „A Century of Pluralistic Ignorance: What We Have Learned About Its Origins, Forms, and Consequences“, Frontiers in Social Psychology 1.
- Contribution to this answer
- Miller shows an additional problem: one can mistakenly believe that his attitude is unusual or lonely because other people also do not show what they really mean. Then the reason for inactivity is not only “nothing can be changed”, but also the wrong impression that there are not enough other people to support the change.
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Kuran, T. (1995), Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification, Harvard University Press.
- Contribution to this answer
- “The Koran shows how the expected price of public opinion produces a vicious circle: people hide discontent, that is why others see less opposition than they actually exist, and they have even less reason to take risks and get involved in public.
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Han, H., Baggetta, M. i Oser, J. (2024), „Organizing and Democracy: Understanding the Possibilities for Transformative Collective Action“, Annual Review of Political Science 27: 245–262.
- Contribution to this answer
- Han, Baggetta and Oser show why the very desire to change is not enough: a permanent political ability arises through organizations that build relationships, skills, leadership and joint ability to act. When such a structure does not exist, individual dissatisfaction becomes much more difficult to collective power.
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Gerschewski, J. (2023), The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule, Cambridge University Press.
- Contribution to this answer
- Gerschewski shows that some autocracy survives precisely through depoliticization: instead of constantly mobilizing citizens, they try to keep them satisfied, passive and out of politics. For this question it is useful because it shows that political passivity can be the way the system works, and not just personal indifference of citizens.
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