ABSTRACT
Citizens’ political talk provides unique insights into how citizens form political attitudes and understand politics. In social psychological and political research, political attitudes are most commonly measured using Likert scales. The way people talk about politics shapes political decisions – whether to vote, which party to vote for and whether to participate in non-conventional forms of political activity – which in turn shape political events. The notion of citizens talking about politics is central to idealised visions of the ‘public sphere’ and deliberative politics. The majority of political science research using focus groups to analyse ‘politics’ as a distinct entity focuses on institutionalised politics, ignoring non-institutional politics. Hungarian respondents talk about politics as a puppet theatre, and citizens as ‘sheep’ who are thrown placating ‘rubber bones’ by politicians. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
