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Core Issues in Comparative Politics (PO233) Module Director: Dr. Renske Doorenspleet Associate Professor in Comparative Politics director Centre for Studies in Democratization Department of Politics and International Studies University of Warwick, UK.

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  1. Core Issues in Comparative Politics(PO233)Module Director: Dr. Renske DoorenspleetAssociate Professor in Comparative Politicsdirector Centre for Studies in DemocratizationDepartment of Politics and International StudiesUniversity of Warwick, UK www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/staff/doorenspleet/ www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/csd/ e-mail: renske.doorenspleet@warwick.ac.uk

  2. Content Lecture week 15 • Political Participation • How? • Why? (macro-level) • Why? (micro-level) • Paradox of collective action • Future Research • F. Contents of seminar week 18

  3. A. How? • Political participation occurs in a variety of forms: • Voting • Donating • Running for office • Petitions • Boycotting • Organizing unions • Sit-ins

  4. A. How? • Typologies of political participation have been developed along three • dimensions: • (1) Where it takes place • (2) Intensity of involvement • (3) The riskiness of political participation

  5. A. How? • Focus is on voluntary participation (though there are examples of forced political participation). • Considering that political participation is costly: • - Why is there political participation at all? • Why do some people participate while others do not? (micro-level) • Why do some countries have a high level of participation while others do not? (macro-level)

  6. B. Why? (macro) • Regime type is an important determinant of the nature of political • participation. • But also within democracies there is a huge diversity in political • participation: • - Level of economic development • Level of democracy • Older democracies? • Multi- or two-party systems

  7. B. Why? (macro) • Voter turnout: • - Poorer and more authoritarian countries tend to have much lower turnouts • Important other (institutional) factors: • - Laws of compulsory voting • - Electoral rules (higher turnout in PR) • - Registration requirements • - Concurrent elections?

  8. B. Why? (macro) • Labour union membership: • - Higher membership in industrialized than in developing countries • - Membership dependent on regime type • - High membership in communist and corporatist authoritarian regimes

  9. C. Why? (micro) • Individual traits that facilitate participation: • (1) Resources • Orientations • Recruitment • Besides individual traits, contextual factors are important

  10. D. Paradox of Collective Action • The paradox of collective action: • - Political participation is a form of contributing to collective goods • - The free-rider problem (Olson 1965) • How to overcome the free-rider problem?

  11. E. Future Research • There are many promising research fields in the field of political • participation: • The relationship between individual traits and contextual factors (micro and macro) • Why do political entrepreneurs opt for different modes of political participation? • Causes and consequences of the increasing differentiation between modes of political action. Why is there so much and so diverse political action? • Is political participation good or bad for democracy?

  12. F. Contents of Seminar week 18 • Homework seminar week 18: • read the required literature of week 15 • 2) What is political participation? Is political participation good or bad for democracy in your opinion?

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