Elisa Darriet, Researcher at the Chair
Elisa Darriet has been recruited to the Defence Economics Chair from February 2018 to August 2019.
She has since become a lecturer at the CNAM and is attached to the LIRSA laboratory.
Introduction
This study analyses the social representation of defence and its relationship with budget allocations for student defence activities. The author uses a questionnaire in order to collect data.
The results show that that the social representation of defence is structured around the notions : « army »and« protection »and of« security ». These concepts refer directly to the purpose of armies (cf. Order no. 59-147, Jan. 1959). Furthermore, in the possible increase in the defence budget, students would give priority to the would favour, as a priority, the budget item relating to the’innovation defence (with civilian repercussions) rather than external operations and nuclear and nuclear deterrence (which are, however, at the heart of France's defence France's defence strategy, according to White paper of 2013 and the Strategic review of 2017).
This study provides some new elements on the analysis of relations between public opinion (representations) of the defence and sor support budget. Citizen opinions that could prove to be a significant force in the support in the construction of an integrated European defence.
Study
On the one hand, this study is part of an ongoing context policy to reduce public deficits, and in an environment international international level, the desire to increase the defence budget contribution of the of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to the level of 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP); and secondly in a singular social context the terrorist attacks of 2015 had a major impact on French public opinion. French public opinion.
In these specific socio-economic contexts, we believe it is interesting to to analyse the social representation of defence and its relationship with defence activities through the budget allocations (e.g. external operations). More more specifically, given the importance of recruitment issues for the armed forces to young people, we are focusing our analysis on how defence is represented among students. This research opens up new new outlook in the analysis of public opinion defence.
Theoretical elements and methodological approach
In methodological terms, we are referring to the social representation theory. As social knowledge, social representations serve as the basis for the interpretation of reality while serving as guide to action. In order to grasp the internal organisation of the constituent elements of the social representation of defence we use the methodology of Vergès (1994) based on the central core hypothesis [1].
The content of the social representation of defence was collected via a free association task. free association task. The participants in the study we conducted were were asked to provide five words that spontaneously came to mind when they when they read the target word « defence ». The second stage is a hierarchical structuring phase. Each participant each participant to rank their own answers according to the importance attached to each term each term (rank 1, most important; rank 5, least important). importance). This task is completed by a questionnaire on the defence budget and a and a socio-demographic questionnaire.
Analysis and results
We used an online survey questionnaire. Data was collected between March and May 2018 in France. 196 students responded to the survey, we retain only 108 complete responses [2].
Based on the words collected, a prototypical analysis was carried out to determine the content and structure of the social representation. We cross-referenced the frequency of occurrence with the average importance rank of each word in order to obtain the organisation of the representation in terms of a central core and peripheral zones. A binomial distribution was used to select words produced by a sufficient number of participants to be statistically significant. This implies that these terms in the social representation cannot be associated randomly. [3].
To
illustration, a four-box table has been created.
Figure 1: Prototypical analysis of the word «Defence»
Note The first quadrant contains elements with a high frequency and a low average appearance rank: this is the central core. The second box (high rank and high frequency) contains the first periphery. Quadrant three (high rank and low frequency) is made up of contrasting elements. Finally, the fourth quadrant (low frequency, low rank) constitutes the distant periphery.
Reading the table word cited (frequency; average rank).
The central core of social representation of defence students is defined by the words Army, Protection and Security. This definition refers directly to the purpose of armies [4]. The «protection» mission is one of the five functions of the national security strategy set out in the 2008 White Paper [5].
To know the attitude of students towards the budget allocated to the defence we asked them if «the defence budget should be : maintained; increased; reduced or you don't know?». This 39.8% of the students questioned, defence spending is likely to increase if should increase if we take into account a context of public spending control. public spending.
Finally, in order to have a more precise idea of the consequences of this possible increase in the allocation of the defence budget, we asked the students to tell us which items would benefit from it. The budget item that would benefit the most from this additional allocation is innovations with civilian spin-offs, for 75% of the participants. We note that two of the last three positions to benefit the least of this additional allowance are those of OPEX and nuclear deterrence (respectively only 35% and 15% of participants are in favour of a budget increase for these positions). However, these budget items are at the at the heart of France's defence strategy. Both the 2013 White Paper that Strategic Review emphasise the need to continue OPEX commitments [6] and deterrence [7].
Points for discussion and conclusion
La relationship between budget and public opinion proves complex. Soroka and Wlezien (2005) find a negative correlation between changes in the defence budget and public opinion. changes in the defence budget and public opinion. More precisely, they explain that they explain that if the level of public spending on defence is below or above the level below or above the level desired by the public, then public opinion public opinion will react in the opposite direction. This phenomenon characterises public reaction to budgetary changes in the areas of defence and domestic and domestic policy in the United States and the United Kingdom (Eichenberg and Stoll, 2003; Soroka and Wlezien, 2005).
At the end of this study, we note the close relationship between perception of defence, support in terms of budget and public opinion. Knowing the social representations attributed to defence and the armed forces can be crucial in terms of communication strategy, particularly in a context where there is a high level of social exclusion. European defence which is struggling to get off the ground, and for which public opinion could be a key factor. significant strength support.
Bibliography
Délégation à l'Information et à la Communication de la Défense, La Défense dans l'opinion des Français 2017, September 2017.
Eichenberg, R.C. and Stoll, R.J. (2015). The Acceptability of War and Support for Defense Spending: Evidence from Fourteen Democracies, 2004-2013.. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 61, 4, 788 - 813.
White Paper on Defence and National Security, 2008.
White Paper on Defence and National Security, 2013.
Strategic Defence and Security Review, October 2017.
Soroka, S.N., and Wlezien. C. (2005). Opinion-policy Dynamics: Public Preferences and Public Expenditure in the United Kingdom, British Journal of Political Science 35 (4): 665-89.
Vergès, P. (1994). Approche du noyau central: propriétés quantitatives et structurales. In C. Guimelli (Ed.), Structure and transformations of social representations (pp. 233-253). Neuchâtel: Delachaux et Niestlé.
Vergès, P., Tyszka, T. and Vergès, P. (1994). Central nucleus, salience and structural properties. Papers on Social Representations, 3(1), 3-12.
[1] The central core expresses the general the general meaning of the social representation; it is fairly stable, shared by shared by most individuals. The peripheral elements surrounding the central core are more dependent on the environment, are malleable and facilitate the adaptation of the representation to different social environments.
[2] The average age of the students surveyed was 22. 59 were men and 49 were women. 31 received 33 have a job, including 12 on permanent contracts. 21 declared paying income tax.
[3] We therefore chose a criterion of 5% - identical to that of Vergès, Tyszka & Vergès (1994) - and only 20 terms. Frequency organisation (high frequency vs. low frequency) is based on the average frequency of occurrence of these these 20 remaining terms: each term mentioned by more than 15,25% of the participants is considered to occur frequently. The average categorisation rank categorisation (average low rank of occurrence versus average high rank) is based on the average rank of the 20 terms retained, which corresponds to 2.48 : each term with an average rank lower than 2.48 is designed for a lower rank.
[4] Defined by Ordinance no. 59-147 of 7 January 1959 on the general organisation of defence - Article 1.
[5] The national security strategy is based on five functions: knowing and anticipating; preventing; deterring; protecting the population and the territory; and projecting forces (White Paper, 2008).
[6] «The three priorities of our defence strategy: protection, deterrence and intervention »(White Paper, 2013, p.7)
[7] « [...] Maintaining our nuclear deterrence strategy » (Strategic Review, 2017, p.7)
