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Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 1
Explaining the Levels of Popular Support for Hosting the Olympic
Games in Semi-Peripheral Polities
Stephen Bodine
Senior Research Paper
Dr. Cassie
12/05/14
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 2
Introduction
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a cosmopolitan, non-governmental
institution that both reflects and shapes the current political landscape. It is the authority of the
Olympic Games, which are an apolitical confluence of the international community where
participants celebrate the values of humanity, fair play and peace through sport (Nauright, 2004).
However, at their core, the Olympics are an inherently political institution through which
countries push their agendas to achieve soft power in the global arena as well as to realize short-
term economic gains and long-term legacies. To win the bid to host the Olympics is a cause for
celebration that will garner much recognition for the political elite and allow a state, region
and/or a city to showcase a staged version of their society and culture. For these reasons, it
proves invaluable for scholars to observe the Olympics as a microcosm of the international
system.
The Olympics enjoy an immense level of support throughout the world that defies
cultural and political boundaries. However, over the past decade the level of popular support for
hosting the Olympic Games has dwindled among liberal democratic and developed polities as the
total cost incurred from holding the Olympics has crept up into the tens of billions1. The costliest
Olympic Games to date were the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Summer
Olympics where the total cost was estimated to be around $50 billion and $43 billion
respectively (Taylor, 2014). Before these two Olympic Games were held, the costliest Olympic
Games were the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. It was purported that the country of Greece
spent $15 billion to $19 billion (Taylor, 2014). The majority of the total cost usually arises from
non-OCOG (Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games) indirect costs, which are incurred
1 It is important to indicate that there is no available official data on the total cost of each Olympic Games, each source has a differing estimate.
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 3
from the infrastructure and the investment necessary to prepare the city or region for hosting the
Games (Flyvberg and Stewart, 2012). One of the most notorious and criticized non-OCOG costs
in the history of the Olympics was the construction of a purported $9 billion dollar railway and
road that transported patrons 31 miles back and forth from Sochi to the ski resort of Krasnaya
Polyana (The Economist, 2013).
Many citizens of these polities perceive hosting the Olympics as a wasteful endeavor that
bears a high opportunity cost. Public funds are diverted away from more beneficial public
projects and into sports infrastructure that too often become white elephants. Time and again, it
results in polities becoming fiscally strained as cost overruns decrease the likelihood of the
Olympic Games becoming profitable and increases the burden of public debt. Flyvberg and
Stewart noted in their work “Olympic Proportions: Cost and Cost Overrun at the Olympics
19602012” (2012, p.13) that every Olympic Games in history has acquired significant cost
overruns for OCOG costs and non-OCOG direct costs. OCOG costs are those expenses required
for staging the Olympic Games, such as administrative cost, security cost and the cost of the
opening and closing ceremonies. Non-OCOG direct costs are defined as construction costs of the
Olympic facilities and sports infrastructure. Flyvberg and Stewart found that the average cost
overrun from both the Winter and Summer Olympics was 179% of the initial budget and
concluded that “the Games’ budget is more like a fictitious minimum that is consistently
overspent” (Flyvberg and Stewart, 2012, p. 11).
The low level of popular support does not hold true for the populace of nondemocratic
and developing polities that the scholars Black and van der Westhuizen (2004) refer to as
“semiperipheral polities”. The term originated from the World Systems theory by Immanuel
Wallerstein (O’neil, 2010). Semi-peripheral polities are the middle rung in a 3-level world
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 4
hierarchy that consists of core, semi-peripheral and peripheral polities. The core polities are the
major powers that wield economic affluence and political clout in order to set the global agenda.
An example of core polities are the OECD’s Development Assistant Committee (DAC)
countries, who are the primary donors of official development assistance. The semi-peripheral
and peripheral polities are dependent upon the core polities. Semi-peripheral polities represent
economies in the “middle range of global development”, and “socially marginalized” polities that
don’t conform to the expectations of the modernization theory (Black and van der
Westhuizen, 2004, p. 1197). For the research semi-peripheral polities will include lower-middle-
income economies and upper-middle-income economies, and marginalized high-income
economies, such as Qatar. A polity is marginalized when it does not possess much symbolic
capital or does not embody the common characteristics of the core polities, such as democracy.
Demonstrated by tables A1 and A2, semi-peripheral countries exhibit higher levels of
popular support when considering both political systems and economic development. The data
for the percentage of popular support in Tables A1 and A2 was compiled from the IOC’s
Working Group Reports for all of the Winter and Summer Olympics between 2012 and 2022.
The level of popular support for each applicant city was measured through a poll conducted by
the IOC in each candidate city. The level of economic development in Table A2 was determined
by a country’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita based upon the World Bank’s Atlas
Method. The World Bank divides countries into four groups: low-income economies (GNI <
$1,045), lower-middle-income economies ($1,046 to $4,125), upper-middle-income economies
($4,126 to $12,745) and high-income economies (GNI >$12,746). It should be noted that no low-
income economies bid for the Olympics in the data. It can be assumed that these countries do not
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 5
possess the financial resources to host the Olympics and put a greater priority on the safety and
the physiological needs of their citizens.
The research in Chart A1 defines a country’s political system according to the Economist
Intelligence Unit’s 2013 Democracy Index. The Democracy Index grades each country on a scale
of 1 to 10 in five categories: civil liberties, electoral process and pluralism, functioning of
government, political culture and political participation (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2013).
They then use a weighted average to categorize countries into the following four groups: full
democracies (8.0 to 10), flawed democracies (6.0 to 7.9), hybrid regimes (4.0 to 5.9) and
authoritarian regimes (0 to 3.9).
The introduction to the topic as proposed by this paper originated from a recent
development in the bidding process for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Three of the six applicant
cities dropped their bids due to popular opposition, all of which were applicants from core
countries (Bonesteel, 2014). The fourth applicant city of Lviv, Ukraine was forced to drop its bid
in response to the ongoing civil war in the country (Bonesteel, 2014). The two remaining
applicants that maintained their bids were the semi-peripheral countries of China and
Kazakhstan. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit and the World Bank, both China and
Kazakhstan are an authoritarian countries with upper-middle-income economies.
The international media quickly took notice of the political systems of the two remaining
applicants remarking that both countries were authoritarian. Many media outlets asserted that
developed liberal democracies are not willing to host the Olympics as a result of their democratic
political system. This is currently a prevalent, yet unproven argument in Western media. The
research will test the validity of this belief by seeking to answer the following question: Why do
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 6
citizens of semi-peripheral polities support hosting the Olympics more so than the citizens of
core polities?
Popular Support Among Semi-peripheral Poities: Two Perspectives
The recent developments in the bidding process for the 2022 Winter Olympics are strong
indicators that individuals in semi-peripheral polities are more attracted to the prospects of
hosting the Games. Many theories try to account for this incident, but only two schools of
thought provide enough scholarly research to justify any further analysis: the Economic
Development and the Political Institution schools of thought. The Economic Development school
of thought is based upon the idea that citizens of semi-peripheral polities value the economic
utility derived from hosting the Olympics. The proponents assert that citizens primarily seek to
gain intangible symbolic capital from signaling and tangible economic benefits, such as tourism,
employment, modern infrastructure and urban regeneration. Lastly, the Political Institution
school of thought recognizes that few semi-peripheral polities are the full democracies common
of the core polities. Proponents contend that citizens of semi-peripheral polities are more often
subjected to a suppressed civil society and minimal fiscal transparency. A lack of fiscal
transparency creates a principal-agent problem between the citizens and their government. Also,
the suppression of civil society results in fewer opportunities for citizen’s to be exposed to
opposing viewpoints. Both limit a citizen’s ability to produce a well-informed attitude towards
hosting the Olympics.
The proponents of the Economic Development school of thought assume that each
citizen is a rational actor and seeks to maximize economic utility. A consumer will support
hosting the Olympics only if the total perceived and realized economic benefits are greater than
the total cost incurred. This idea is modeled in the following consumer value equation:
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 7
Value= total benefits – total costs
This school concludes that citizens of semi-peripheral polities find value in the economic
benefits derived from the Olympics that are not as beneficial for the citizens of core polities. In
other words, the citizens of the less economically developed semi-peripheral polities exhibit
higher levels of support because they are positioned to gain greater total economic utility.
One basis for the Economic Development school of thought is the signaling theory by
Jacob Spence. According to Preuss and Alfs, signaling is “sending out signals to convey info
about otherwise hard to observe qualities of the sender in order to minimize the information
asymmetry and/or to accumulate symbolic capital” (2011, p.57). Information asymmetry is a
situation where one actor knows more than another actor resulting in misperceptions and other
inefficiencies (Rosser and Rosser, 2004, p.39). A polity would seek to minimize asymmetry in
order to disprove common misperceptions held by a population, differentiate itself or promote
commonality (Black and Van Der Westhuizen, 2004). Signaling results in the accumulation of
intangible symbolic capital. Symbolic capital is the value an actor gains through prestige and
respectability (Preuss and Alfs, 2011, p.56). It can be transformed into more tangible economic
capital in both the short-run and the long-run.
The Olympics provide the best opportunity for polities to conduct public diplomacy,
which is diplomacy aimed at foreign citizens (Grix and Lee, 2013, p.529). The Games have
achieved an unprecedented scale on the world stage in both participation and viewership.
Currently, they are broadcasted to over 200 countries and territories. The 2012 London Summer
Olympics reached an estimated 3.6 billion viewers, while the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games
reached an estimated 2.1 billion viewers (London Olympic Games 2012 Broadcast
Report, 2012; Sochi 2014 Global Broadcast and Audience Report, 2014).
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 8
Globalization has increased the importance of brand image in the international arena
(Black and Van Der Westhuizen, 2004). When one thinks about a polity, certain associations
come to mind. For instance, when an individual thinks of Beijing, China the negative
associations of pollution, crowds, inequality and communism may be recalled. Hosting the
Olympic Games allows a polity to redefine their brand image and therefore increase their
marketing power. When Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, they showcased their
culture through one of the most celebrated opening ceremonies of all time. It included 15,000
performers and had an estimated cost of $100 million USD (Yardley, 2008). After watching the
Beijing Opening Ceremony, individuals may now identify the city with the more positive
associations of modernity, harmony and grandeur. This is an example of costly signaling where
an actor’s expensive endeavors increase its symbolic capital (Preuss and Alfs, 2011). Eventually,
Beijing’s accumulated symbolic capital will be converted into economic capital through induced
tourism and a greater inflow of foreign investment.
The emerging economies of semi-peripheral polities are often perceived to be risky
destinations for foreign investment and tourists. International investors and tourists are more
likely to choose the core economies of the United States, Japan and Western Europe, which have
amassed greater amounts of symbolic capital. Hosting the Olympics provides an opportunity for
semi-peripheral polities to demonstrate stability, competence and modernization. This signals to
investors their economic maturity and allows them to accrue symbolic capital. Thus,
semiperipheral polities better positioned to gain more economic value than developed polities
when hosting the Olympics.
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 9
The research done on the monetary value of the symbolic capital accumulated from
hosting the Olympics is incomplete. The economic value is hard to quantify because the
economic impact lasts an indeterminate length of time and can manifest itself into many different
forms. However, the research done by Li and McCabe (2013) indicates that economic legacies
such as induced tourism, economic growth, employment and Olympic facilities- decrease in
strength as time passes and are nearly nonexistent in the long-run (2013, p.391). The economic
legacies that do remain include infrastructure, - like highways, rail lines and parks - and Olympic
facilities (Li and McCabe, 2013). These leftover legacies do not benefit the core polities as much
as the semi-peripheral polities because they usually already enjoy quality public infrastructure.
The Economic Development school of thought does have its limitations. Proponents do
not account for bounded rationality. Full information regarding cost and benefits of hosting the
Olympics are never fully available. As previously mentioned, every Olympic Games on record
has incurred cost overruns which are not apparent until the Games are awarded and construction
has begun. Also, scholars Eric Barget and Jean-Jacques Gouguet emphasize that public-decision
makers too often base their determinations off of inadequate economic impact studies, and that
more accurate cost-benefit analysis are rarely utilized (2010, p.142).
Also, the Economic Development school of thought does not consider an individual’s
noneconomic motivations for supporting the Olympics. A citizen may be enthusiastic to
showcase their polity to the world. One would also assume that citizens may be eager to
participate in the Olympics themselves. However, scholar Peter Esinger (2000) refutes this
argument. He states that the patron base for sport mega-events have altered from locals to visitors
over the course of the century (Esinger, 2000, p.319). This becomes a more valid argument
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 10
when taking into account the citizens of poorer semi-peripheral polities who have trouble
affording the costly tickets for the events.
The Political Institution school of thought relies on the logic that the political elite or a
political system are inclined to suppress and/or divert the voices of civil society who are opposed
to hosting the Olympics. The non-democratic or weak democratic political systems of many
semi-peripheral polities are less likely to possess the characteristics conducive to civil society
and political openness, including fiscal transparency and civil liberties. It is believed that there is
limited political openness in these semi-peripheral polities and civil society is suppressed
resulting in fewer opportunities to voice dissatisfaction with the bids through referendums, polls
and other means. The political elites of these polities are left unchecked to pursue the bid for
their own self-gain. According to scholar Peter Esinger, hosting mega-events like the Olympics
are popular among political elites for a variety of reasons (Esinger, 2000). Local elites pursue
mega-events in order to attract tourist who “import spending and export the tax burden” (Esinger,
2000, p.321). Also, hosting the Games have the ability to garner the political elite popularity and
their ‘supporters’ large profits (Esinger, 2000, p.331).
This school of thought relies on the logic that many citizens do not wish to host the
Olympic Games due to the high opportunity cost and the heightened perceived risk. Esinger
found that when referenda were held in the United States for funding large sport facilities, the
majority resulted in negative decisions (2000, 324). Political elites are aware of this reality and
try to avoid public pressure in order to reap the awards of hosting the Games.
A case can be made that this school of thought applies to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic
Games as the “pet idea” of Russia’s current President Vladimir Putin (Petersson, 2014, p.32).
The scholar Petersson argues that Putin used the Sochi Olympic Games to enhance his “macho
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 11
image” (2014, p.32). Others scholars contend that he legitimized himself by being the head
proponent of the Games and used them as an expedient to reclaim the Presidency (Gronskaya
and Makaychev, 2014).
The Political Institutions school of thought fails to explain the high levels of popular
support among the core democratic semi-peripheral countries, like Brazil. However, it is
important to note that these semi-peripheral democracies are often classified under flawed
democracies or hybrid regimes. Nonetheless, they still maintain an imperfect degree of civil
liberties and rights that allows for limited, but present civil society and fiscal transparency. In
conclusion, the limited application of the Political Institution school of thought makes it the
weaker of the two schools. It does not explain why semi-peripheral polities with full
democracies, flawed democracies and possibly hybrid regimes demonstrate higher rates of
popular support than developed democracies.
Thesis
The Economic Development school of thought proves to be the strongest explanation for the
higher level of support among citizens of semi-peripheral polities. A model of the hypothesis is
as follows:
Stage of Economic Development → Level of Popular Support
Both schools of thought offer compelling arguments and both will likely explain
individual attitudes towards hosting the Olympics to an extent. The literature suggests that
citizens of the developing semi-peripheral polities value the perceived and realized economic
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 12
benefits more so than the citizens of core polities. Specifically, the less economically developed
a polity is, the greater the level of support for hosting the Olympics its citizens will demonstrate.
Methodology
I analyzed the levels of popular support exhibited by the citizens of the applicant cities
for the Olympic Games from 2010 through 2022. The data for the subset of applicant cities was
collected during and after the run-up to the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. Many regard the
Athens Summer Olympics to be one of the most financially and economically scrutinized
Olympic Games in history. It became a symbol of wasteful spending and fiscal strain. Today, it
is considered to have been a catalyst for Greece’s current debt crises. The troubles in Greece
were widely reported by media around the world and many individuals began to view hosting the
Olympics as a financial burden.
The total sample size included 33 applicant cities for both the Summer and Winter
Olympics. In order to control for the political system, I excluded applicant cities that were
representative of authoritarian regimes. An authoritarian regime is any political system that held
an overall score from 0 to 3.9 in the Democracy Index. The subset of applicant cities included
representatives of full democracies, flawed democracies and hybrid regimes. Cities
representative of hybrid regimes were included in the subset because the majority -such as
Istanbul, Turkey and Borjomi, Georgia- are cities of weak democracies.
The subset of applicant cities represented the various stages of economic development,
with the exception of low-income economies. Twenty-three of the thirty-three applicant cities
were representative of the core, high-income economies with a GNI per capita greater than
$12,746. Five applicant cities were representative of semi-peripheral, upper-middle-income
economies with a GNI per capita between $4,126 and $12,745. The remaining five applicant
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 13
cities were representative of semi-peripheral, lower-middle income economies with a GNI per
capita between $1,046 and $4,125.
The dependent variable that we sought to explain was the level of support demonstrated
by the citizens of an applicant city. I acquired the data from the Working Group Reports
compiled by the IOC for the selection process of each Olympic Games. The Working Group
Reports included both the level of popular support within the applicant city as well as the level of
popular support in the entire country. I analyzed the level of local support instead of the level of
national support because the citizens of applicant cities experience the majority of the positive
and the negative ramifications of hosting the Olympics. Thus, they should possess stronger and
more informed opinions. Also, the local IOC Poll was more reliable than the national poll,
which was conducted by each country’s Bid Committee. There was no standardized method for
conducting each Bid Committee poll and there was a significant incentive to demonstrate higher
levels support by the Bid Committees. When selecting a host country, the IOC Working Group
graded each applicant city on 14 criteria, including Government and Public Support. Both polls
were factored into the Government and Public Support criterion.
I operationalized the level of economic development with the Gross National Income
(GNI) per capita of each applicant city’s country. The GNI per capita was calculated using the
World Bank Atlas method. Usually, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the preferred economic
indicator used to measure the level of economic development within a polity. However, I used
GNI because it is a more holistic measure that includes the income attained from abroad. By
including the factor incomes generated in other countries we better account for the levels of
international economic integration of each polity. International economic integration is an
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 14
outcome of accumulating symbolic capital, which is sought by semi-peripheral polities when
bidding to host the Olympics (Rose and Spiegel, 2009).
To test the veracity of the hypotheses I conducted a linear regression analysis in order to
calculate the amount of variation in the level of popular support that can be explained by the
level of economic development. The data will be calculated with the SPSS data analysis
software. The results will be encouraging if there is a noticeable negative association and a
correlation with a r² value that is greater than .4.
One limitation of the analysis is the small sample size of 33 applicant cities. The sample
size is acceptable, but not ideal. It will result in a greater adjustment for the r² value.
An individual’s attitude towards hosting the Olympics is formed from a variety of
motivations, both utilitarian and hedonic. It is highly unlikely for a citizen of an applicant city to
base his or her opinion solely on the economic utility. It is important to keep in mind that
because an individual’s attitude is the product of an indeterminate number of variables, any
relationship found will likely be weaker.
Evaluation of Results
The objective of the linear regression analysis was to accept or reject the hypothesis that
the less economically developed a polity is, the greater the level of support its citizens will
demonstrate. The criteria that needed to be met in order consider accepting the hypothesis was a
negative association and a r² value greater than .04. Even if the conditions are met, it does not
guarantee the findings are significant. It is almost a certainty that there are underlying variables
that are not accounted for.
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 15
The results from the linear regression analysis are encouraging. (See Table C1). The
calculations provided a Pearson correlation value of -.687 and a r² value of .472. The Pearson
correlation value indicates that the analysis produced a strong negative correlation. There is a
small discrepancy between the r² value (.472) and the adjusted r² value (.456). Based upon the
adjusted r² value, 45.6% of the variability in popular support can be accounted for by the level of
economic development. Overall, the relationship between popular support and economic
development is satisfactory, and the data supports the hypothesis.
The results of the linear regression analysis support the hypothesis, but one should take
these findings with a grain of salt. The Economic Development school of thought assumed that
all of the citizens were rational actors and sought to maximize their economic utility. However,
in reality this is never the case. It does not consider the noneconomic explanations for individuals
supporting the Olympics. An individual may desire to host the Olympic Games for the affect.
An example of a noneconomic motivation that serves as a lurking variable is patriotism. A
citizen of a developing semi-peripheral polity may support hosting the Olympics because it
symbolizes the ascension of the polity onto the global scene.
The statistical analysis did not account for the discrepancies in the level of development
between cities. An alpha city, such as London or Paris, will not receive as much economic utility
as beta or gamma city, such as Baku. These classifications are assigned by the Globalization and
World Cities (GaWC) Research Network based upon the level of integration in the international
economy. Alpha cities are the most integrated followed by beta, gamma, high-sufficiency and
sufficiency cities. Alpha cities possess more symbolic capital than beta and gamma cities. An
alpha city such as Moscow might be located in a semi-peripheral country (GaWC, 2012). Also,
the analysis did not account for the development discrepancies between cities within the same
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 16
country. The gamma city Leipzig, Germany (82%) demonstrated a greater level of popular
support than the alpha city Munich, Germany (70%) (GaWC, 2012).
Conclusion
The Olympic Games serve as a microcosm of the international system. They reflect the
defining economic and political conditions of the time. In the research, I sought to explain the
observed lack of interest in hosting the Olympics by the citizens of core polities by asking the
following question: Why do citizens of semi-peripheral polities support hosting the Olympics
more so than the citizens of core polities? Could it be an indicator of the rise of the Global South
and/or an evolving world order? Based on past literature, I came to the conclusion that the best
explanation considers the perceived and realized economic benefits derived from the Olympics. I
reasoned that citizens of semi-peripheral polities gained more economic utility from hosting the
Games, and thus valued it more. More specifically, the less economically developed a polity is,
the greater the level of support its citizens will demonstrate.
The results of the linear regression analysis upheld the hypothesis, but did not confirm it.
When measuring an individual’s attitude there are too many factors to consider because each
individual possesses their own idiosyncrasies. That being said, the results did demonstrate the
importance of economic value to the relevance of mega-projects, like the Olympics. Applicant
cities around the world could use these findings in order to enhance the value of the Olympic
Games for their own citizens. Instead of leaving legacies of white elephants, a polity could
propose a plan to repurpose those facilities into something more beneficial. The International
Olympic Committee should consider excluding the nonessential requirements for hosting the
Olympics. If not, it risks alienating itself from many of its biggest and wealthiest markets.
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 17
Overall, the greater levels of popular support among semi-peripheral economies signifies
the rise of the Global South and increasing globalization. A decade ago, many of these polities
could not afford to host the Olympics. Today, their growth has unlocked the benefits that can be
derived from hosting these sport mega-events and globalization has increased the potential
economic bounty. Their citizens wish to gain the economic benefits acquired from being put on
the map in one of the greatest global competitions in world history.
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Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 22
Appendix A
Table A1
Political System Classification and Popular Support for the Olympics
The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index Country Classification
Full Flawed Hybrid Authoritarian Democracies Democracies Regimes Regimes
Popular Support 67% 83% 81% 80%
Table A2
Economic Development and Popular Support for the Olympics
World Bank’s Atlas Method Economic Classification
High-income Upper-middle-income Lower-middle-income Economy Economy Economy
Popular Support 70% 78% 86%
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 23
Appendix B
Table B1 Development Levels and Percentage of Popular Support
Applicant City Popular Support
Economic Development Level (GNI per capita, in USD)
Oslo, Norway
36.00%
102,610
Istanbul, Turkey 73.00% 10,810 Tokyo, Japan 47.00% 47,690 Madrid, Spain 78.00% 29,340
Munich, Germany 70.00% 43,400 Annecy, France 74.00% 42,390
PyeongChang, South Korea 90.00% 21,320 Chicago, United States 74.00% 49,350 Prague, Czech Republic 31.00% 46,790
Tokyo, Japan 59.00% 37,870 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 77.00% 7,480
Madrid, Spain 90.00% 31,580 Sochi, Russia 78.00% 5,820
Salzburg, Austria 46.00% 39,640 PyeongChang, South Korea 96.00% 19,980
Jaca, Spain 79.00% 27,320 Borjomi, Georgia 95.00% 1,680 Sofia, Bulgaria 83.00% 4,080 Paris, France 72.00% 30,420
Leipzig, Germany 82.00% 30,750 New York, United States 68.00% 43,690
Moscow, Russia 76.00% 3,410 Istanbul, Turkey 82.00% 5,070
London, United Kingdom 67.00% 34,990 Madrid, Spain 85.00% 21,470
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 87.00% 3,310 PyeongChang, South Korea 85.00% 12,470
Salzburg, Austria 76.00% 24,110 Vanncouver, Canada 58.00% 23,330
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 95.00% 1,700 Jaca, Spain 74.00% 15,070
Bern, Switzerland 42.00% 37,670 Andorra la Vella, Andorra 60.00% 18,990
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 24
Appendix C
Table C1 Economic Development and Percentage of Popular Support for Hosting the Olympics
Model Summary
Model R R Square Adjusted R
Square
Std. Error of the
Estimate
1 .687a .472 .456 12.36857%
a. Predictors: (Constant), GNI per capita
ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1
Regression 4380.355 1 4380.355 28.633 .000b
Residual 4895.410 32 152.982
Total 9275.765 33 a. Dependent Variable: Popular Support
b. Predictors: (Constant), GNI per capita
Figure C1
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 25
Popular Support in Semi-peripheral Polities 26