Societal Self-empowerment in Germany

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Frontmatter

2. Chapter 1. Societal Self-Empowerment: Concept and Classification

   Peter Kirsch, Hanno Kube, Reimut Zohlnhöfer

   Abstract

   The chapter sketches the range of political and social phenomena that can be subsumed under the term “societal self-empowerment” and defines it as the conscious violation of legal and non-legal norms for political, idealistic and ethical reasons. The course of the argumentation of the book is then outlined.

3. Chapter 2. What is Societal Self-Empowerment?

   Peter Kirsch, Hanno Kube, Reimut Zohlnhöfer

   Abstract

   The chapter sheds light on societal self-empowerment from a legal perspective and structures the subject matter. It is then shown that legal justification grounds (e.g. self-defense, emergency, self-help), fundamental rights (including the right of resistance under Art. 20 para. 4 GG) or also state-philosophical considerations (e.g. Radbruch’s formula) cannot re-integrate self-empowerment into the law, but that the phenomenon falls into the category of civil disobedience. This is illustrated by the examples of the climate school strikes and the disregard for the obligation to wear a mask during the Corona pandemic. Finally, it is discussed how the legal system deals with violations of non-legal conventions.

4. Chapter 3. How Much Societal Self-Empowerment is There?

   Peter Kirsch, Hanno Kube, Reimut Zohlnhöfer

   Abstract

   Based on two representative population surveys, the chapter discusses the extent of societal self-empowerment in Germany in 2020. It turns out that almost two thirds of the respondents are willing to break the law in exceptional situations in order to follow their conscience. If, on the other hand, one asks whether one is allowed to take the law into one’s own hands or whether one must only adhere to rules if one agrees with them, if one is threatened with being caught or if the government also adheres to the rules, the agreement decreases significantly. However, the study of two concrete examples, the climate school strikes (3 items) and societal self-empowerment in the context of Corona measures (4 items), shows that societal self-empowerment is indeed socially relevant. Around a quarter of the respondents support the climate protests taking place during school time and thus violating the legal obligation to attend school, and at least six percent state that they have only sometimes complied with the Corona restrictions. However, it depends on the concrete subject whether people are willing to self-empower or not. People who participate in climate strikes therefore do not necessarily comply any less with the Corona restrictions—on the contrary.

5. Chapter 4. Corona Self-Empowerment

   Peter Kirsch, Hanno Kube, Reimut Zohlnhöfer

   Abstract

   This chapter uses regression analysis to examine the inclination of respondents from two representative population surveys to societal self-empowerment, that is, norm-violating behavior with regard to the German strategy for combating the Corona pandemic. For this purpose, an aggregated index is used which combines the self-reported compliance with the Corona rules, the willingness to install the Corona warning app and to be vaccinated, as well as the participation in anti-Corona demonstrations. In parallel, the first three items are also examined separately. It turns out that the people who turn against the German Corona strategy tend to be alienated from the political system. These people not only prove to be dissatisfied with the Corona measures, which they consider to be unjustified; rather, these respondents also tend to have significantly lower satisfaction with democracy, lower satisfaction with the problem-solving ability of the political system, mistrust of the public service media and science, a tendency to non-voting or voting for the AfD as a protest party, significantly higher belief in conspiracy and lower trust in the political system and other people.

6. Chapter 5. Fridays for Future Self-empowerment

   Peter Kirsch, Hanno Kube, Reimut Zohlnhöfer

   Abstract

   This chapter uses ordinal logistic regression to examine the propensity of respondents from two representative population surveys to self-empowerment in connection with the climate school strikes of the Fridays-for-Future movement. An aggregated index is used that combines three items: own participation or participation of a relative in the protests, evaluation of the climate school strikes and priority of the school obligation over the climate strikes. The analysis shows that people who agree with self-empowerment in the context of the Fridays for Future school strikes are younger, more trusting of science, but also more willing to trust political actors, their fellow human beings and social media. In addition, these people are generally satisfied with the performance of the political parties in solving problems—with the exception of the climate crisis. They are particularly close to the parties from the left spectrum, have a greater interest in politics and accept that in exceptional situations laws are broken.

7. Chapter 6. Discussion: Between Representational Gap and Conspiracy Belief

   Peter Kirsch, Hanno Kube, Reimut Zohlnhöfer

   Abstract

   In view of the remarkable differences between persons who tend to self-empowerment in the areas of Corona and climate, the chapter introduces the distinction between instrumental and expressive self-empowerment. Instrumental self-empowerment describes deviant behaviour of persons who are positive towards democracy, who try to support their political goals by means of unconventional political participation (here: Fridays for Future). Expressive self-empowerment, on the other hand, is deviant political behaviour with which the respective person not only expresses her dissatisfaction with certain political measures and the incumbent government, but with the functioning of democracy and the political system as a whole (here: Corona self-empowerment). Subsequently, we examine to what extent expressive self-empowerment can be understood as manifestation of a deficit of political representation, which has led to the perception of social exclusion and loss of control at the individual level, which in turn has, inter alia, resulted in a greater openness to conspiracy theories and ultimately expressive self-empowerment.

8. Chapter 7. Conclusion: What to do Against (Expressive) Self-empowerment?

   Peter Kirsch, Hanno Kube, Reimut Zohlnhöfer

   Abstract

   The chapter summarizes the empirical findings of the book and discusses in which ways expressive self-empowerment can be counteracted. Both a policy of punishment and deterrence and social exclusion of self-empowering persons are assessed as counterproductive—both are likely to further increase alienation from the political system. The hope for a policy track-record that is widely perceived as successful also appears to be low. A possible way could be changes in the recruitment patterns of political parties. However, what is most urgently needed is an inclusive political, social and media discourse that does neither rely on the argumentative figure of inevitability nor on the pre-discrediting of political arguments as immoral or impractical.

9. Backmatter