To Örebro University

What is politics according to citizens? This thesis centers around that question and seeks to contribute to our understanding of citizens’ conceptions of politics. It discusses and investigates variations in, origins of, and consequences of con-ceptions of politics.

The theoretical perspectives direct interest to three levels of politics. The first concerns the political macro-level and political culture. The second takes an in-terest in the meso-level of politics and different subcultures. The third focuses on the micro-level, more specifically on individual citizens’ political participation.

Empirically, the thesis rests on three studies, based on two sets of survey data collected in Sweden and the U.S. The data sets from each country are fairly rep-resentative to the larger populations.

On citizens’ conceptions of politics - the disagreements found among scholars over the meaning of politics seem to be present among the public as well. There is no unified understanding of what politics is. The notions citizens have on the matter vary both in terms of breadth (how much of the social world they catego-rize as politics) and of content (the composition of phenomena they understand to be politics). In both countries examined in this thesis, some groups regardalmost nothing as political. At the same time, at the other end of the spectrum,there are groups whose conception of politics is so broad that it covers almost everything. Several other groups can also be discerned between these two ex-tremes.

On the origins of citizens’ differing conceptions of politics - several factorsseem to influence conceptions of politics, such as SES and demographic back-ground. Attitudinal orientations appear to have an impact as well. One factor, however, stands out: people’s interest in politics. People with a strong interest in politics are far more likely to regard their surrounding social world as being about politics compared to their less interested counterparts.

On the consequences of citizens’ differing conceptions of politics - are citizens’ conceptions of politics related to their political participation? The simple answer to this question is “yes.” Citizens who embrace a broad conception of politics are more likely to be involved in political activities.

This comprehensive account of citizens’ conceptions of politics indicates that the conception of politics is a political orientation that deserves more attention in research.