Political Participation

1. Political Participation Who participates and what difference does it make?

2. Forms of participation: • Voluntary participation: self-motivated – individuals decide to participate • Regimented participation: the government (or ruling party) forces people to participate • Characteristic of totalitarian and some authoritarian regimes • Mobilized participation: parties, trade unions, churches, interest groups encourage people to participate – not coerced but combination of incentives plus strong element of persuasion

3. Some key questions: • Who participates in politics? • How does it vary? • from country to country? • within countries? • What accounts for differences and similarities? • What difference does it make? The ‘so what’ question

4. The ‘more the more’ hypothesis: • People with higher social and economic status (SES), and more education more likely to participate • If so, then: • There will be more participation in wealthier societies than in poorer societies • Participating more, better-offs in any society should have more influence than worse-offs

5. Post-materialism and value change `Erst das fressen, dan die morale’ • According to Ronald Inglehart, people who are raised (or come of age) in affluent societies are more likely to to hold post-material or radical quality of life values • People who are raised in situations of economic scarcity are more likely to hold materialistic values

6. Is this true? • Those at the bottom should have greater motivation to participate • Working class parties have mobilized followers in order to ensure a voice • But, how effectively and how recently? • If the very poor do not participate as much, why do they not participate?

7. Is this true? • Those at the bottom should have greater motivation to participate • Working class parties have mobilized followers in order to ensure a voice • But, how effectively and how recently? • If the very poor do not participate as much, why do they not participate?