| This programme is about the quality of local democracy in multi-ethnic cities. The two main variables that determine this quality are political participation and trust in local political institutions. To what degree do ethnic groups participate and to what degree do they trust the (local) democratic institutions? The second question we address is how differences in participation and trust can be explained. For this we will turn to the civic community perspective. We will first measure the number of voluntary associations of the ethnic groups and their organisational linkages. Then we will measure the integration of these ethnic associations in the local community and their access to the political decision making process. We assume that the degree of civic community and integration is determined by the interaction between, on the one hand, the political opportunity structure at the local level and, on the other hand, the strategic choices of the ethnic associations. |
