Civic Engagement and Mass–Elite Policy Agenda Agreement in American Communities

Abstract

We test propositions about how different forms of civic engagement are related to democratic representation in American communities. Our data are for the samples of communities, their citizens, and their leaders originally examined by Verba and Nie inParticipation in America(1972). Our analyses of those data indicate that membership in bridging social–capital civic associations is unrelated to democratic responsiveness of leaders to the mass public but that bonding social–capital membership is negatively associated with such responsiveness. We also demonstrate that bonding social–capital civic engagement weakens the democratic linkage processes inherent in elections.