Democracy, impartiality and the online political activity of Aotearoa New Zealand’s public sector employees: similarities and differences with other Westminster countries

ABSTRACT

While some hail social media as improving political participation, some governments have received social media with a touch of trepidation; concerned that public servants’ online political activity might threaten the public service’s reputed impartiality. Recent research from some Westminster countries where government messaging about social media have been especially cautious have found a negative relationship between public sector employment and online political activity. But what about public sector employees in Aotearoa New Zealand, where, comparative research suggests, the tone and substance of social media guidelines are less risk-averse than other Westminster countries? Using data from the 2014, 2017 and 2020 New Zealand Election Study, this article examines the relationship between public sector employment and online activity with several multivariate regression models. The results lead to two conclusions. First, consistent with research from other countries, a negative relationship has emerged over time between public sector employment and online political activity in Aotearoa New Zealand. Second, although public sector employees are less politically active online relative to other citizens, the substantive size of this gap is not as great as that found in other Westminster countries. The implications of these findings for the state of democracy and impartiality in Aotearoa New Zealand are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Democracy
• impartiality
• public servants
• political activity
• social media
• Westminster

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00323187.2024.2347219

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher A. Cooper

Christopher A. Cooper is Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa. He is the author of At the Pleasure of the Crown: The Politics of Bureaucratic Appointments (UBC Press). Professor Cooper’s research examines the tenets of the Westminster administrative tradition—permanency, impartiality, merit recruitment—and how these have been challenged in the face of adjacent trends such as the advent of social media and the centralization of prime ministerial power. His research has been published in various journals including most recently, the International Journal of Public Leadership and the International Journal of Public Sector Management.