Voting, petition signing or street politics? The role of system justification and faith in system stability

Abstract

The current study was aimed to analyze the associations between the system justification, belief in its (system) stability and willingness to engage in various forms of political action (voting, signing petitions, as well as street protests, among which are picketing, participation in sanctioned and unsanctioned rallies). According to our linear regression model, system justification was independent variable, whereas willingness to vote, sign petitions, or engagement in street protests acted as dependent variables. Relationship between the variables was moderated by belief in the stability of the system, gender and age – those acted as covariates. System justification was found to increase willingness to vote to when the level of faith in the system’s stability is medium or high. At the same time, system justification decreased willingness to engage in street protests irrespective of the faith in the its stability. Also, system justification decreased willingness to sign collective petitions given the low level of faith in its stability. The role of the covariates is also discussed. At the same time, system justification lowers willingness to sign collective petitions given low faith in its stability. The results concerning the role of covariates are also discussed in the article.