Kruising van sociale kringen en politieke keuze. De invloed van de sociale samenstelling van persoonlijke netwerken op stemgedrag

Samenvatting

This paper describes the personal networks of those that were eligible to vote in the Netherlands in 1998. It also examines and tests alternative explanations for the effects of the social composition of networks on voting behaviour. To this end, data were collected in two representative national surveys (valid N=3.148). The results of multinomial logistic diagonal reference models show that the personal networks of the Dutch are homogeneous with respect to religion, education and social status. These characteristics of personal network members have significant effects on respondent's voting behaviour, effects which are stronger for social ties characterized by intimate contact. There were no effects of crosscutting social circles on staying away at the ballot. Contrary to what was expected, ego's similarity to network members also did not affect voting behaviour. We interpret our findings in terms of a process of social influence through direct ties rather than of social comparison with similar others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]; Copyright of Mens en Maatschappij is the property of Amsterdam University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)