Electoral participation of Muslims in Europe: assessing the impact of institutional and discursive opportunities. Issue 2 (26th January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cinalli, Manlio; Giugni, Marco
• Is Part Of: Journal of ethnic and migration studies. Volume 42:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 309
• Page End: 324
• Publication Date: 2016-01-26
• Subjects: Muslims -- electoral participation -- institutional opportunities -- discursive opportunities; Ethnic relations -- Periodicals; Race relations -- Periodicals; Emigration and immigration -- Periodicals; Assimilation (Sociology) -- Periodicals; 305.8005
• DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2015.1102043
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-183X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper explores the hypothesis that the electoral participation of Muslims varies according to two main types of opportunities, namely, institutional and discursive opportunities (DOs), characterising their country of residence. More specifically, we assess the impact of institutional opportunities (IOs) in terms of civic and cultural dimensions. We then add up the analysis of DOs in their quality of legitimating public debates over Muslims. We conduct our study by relating survey data to standardised contextual indicators of institutional and DOs in four European countries. The results show that both institutional and DOs have an impact, under control of a number of individual characteristics. However, while the civic and cultural dimensions of IOs have an equally important effect, we find that DOs are less crucial for Muslims' electoral participation. A number of broader implications of these findings are discussed.