Abstract

The current economic crisis is affecting the daily lives of a large number of Italian people. This paper explores the role played by crisis in their civic attitudes. In particular, employing nationally representative data, this study investigates the explanatory role of crisis - measured as material lifestyle change - on civic attitudes and analyses its interaction with sociodemographic and status variables (gender, age, education, etc.). Specifically, four different types of attitudes are investigated: civism, tolerance, generalized trust and attitudes toward other ethnic groups. The findings reveal strong evidence of adverse effects of crisis on civic attitudes. In particular, analyses consistently show that material lifestyle change is capable of having a significant impact on attitudes, in addition to sociodemographic and status variables. Results also suggest that the economic crisis significantly influences civic attitudes interacting in different ways with sociodemographic and status variables, as territory and education. Implications of the results are discussed and future research avenues are offered.