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Understanding Political Participation in Comparative Politics

Explore the intricacies of political participation at macro and micro levels, analyzing reasons for involvement and the paradox of collective action. Discuss future research avenues and impact on democracies.

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Understanding Political Participation in Comparative Politics

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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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