ODISSEI supports research on inequality in citizen participation

Innovative research

Inspired by the literature on ‘diploma democracies’ and symbolic representation in the administrative workforce, Visser, De Koster and Van der Waal will study whether congruence between the socioeconomic status of civil servants and citizens makes citizens more willing to collaborate with civil servants and the local government. They will use an original vignette survey experiment in the LISS panel to do so. This research crucially advances our understanding of democratic (non-)participation, and provides a starting point for tackling the unwanted underrepresentation of lower SES groups in participatory democracy.

About the LISS panel

The LISS panel (Longitudinal Internet studies for the Social Sciences) is a high-quality panel, representative of the Dutch population. The panel is based on a true probability sample of households, drawn from the population register by Statistics Netherlands (CBS). It consists of 5,000 households, comprising approximately 7,500 individuals of 16 years and older. Self-registration is not possible, participation is invite-based only. Households that could otherwise not participate are provided with a simple computer and Internet connection. 

About ODISSEI

ODISSEI (Open Data Infrastructure for Social Science and Economic Innovations) gives researchers access to large-scale, longitudinal data collections as well as innovative and diverse new forms of data, which can be linked to administrative data at Statistics Netherlands. ODISSEI provides researchers from participating organizations (such as the EUR) the opportunity to collect new data via the LISS panel, which enables researchers to answer new, exciting, interdisciplinary research questions and to investigate existing questions in novel ways.