Examining political participation in Lithuania: The direct and mediated effects of social trust

ObjectiveWe assessed the influences of political efficacy and political participation on public perceptions of police trustworthiness in China.MethodsDrawing upon approximately 10,000 cases collected by the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), we used multivariate regression to assess the impact of two types of political efficacy, internal efficacy and external efficacy, and three forms of political participation, engaging in community affairs, grassroots election, and rightful resistance, on public trust in the police, controlling for demographics and social trust and justice.ResultsWe found that external efficacy and grassroots election are positively related to trust in the police, whereas internal efficacy and rightful resistance are negatively associated with such trust. Background characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity, age, education, and household registration, and social trust and justice variables are also predictive of Chinese perceptions of police trustworthiness.ConclusionPolitical efficacy and participation mattered in influencing trust in the police. The Chinese government should continue its political reforms by allowing greater public participation in the selection of political representatives and the decision‐making process of public policy.

This study examine the roles of internal and collective political efficacy across different forms of political participation, with a focus on how generative AI, used as a digital engagement tool by governments, influences citizens' political interest, knowledge, efficacy, and participation. The findings reveal that internal political efficacy significantly promotes political participation, especially non-institutionalized participation, while collective political efficacy plays a more limited role. The government's use of generative AI improves access to policy information and political participation opportunities. However, its impact on political efficacy depends on whether online engagement leads to real policy responsiveness. Policy responsiveness plays a key role in enhancing efficacy and sustained participation. This study shows that political efficacy is influenced by both individual cognition and external factors, highlighting the need for digital government strategies to combine innovation with effective policy feedback to better engage citizens.

The issue of whether the internet promotes political participation has always been a hotly debated topic in academia. However, current research lacks an effective classification of the modes of internet use, and it does not analyze their effect on different forms of political participation. Based on data from the 2015 and 2018 waves of the China Urban Governance Survey, this study offers an examination of the internet usage behavior of Chinese urban netizens from the perspectives of internet involvement and information consumption, as well as comparing the impact that different modes of internet use have on conventional and unconventional political participation. The results of this study confirm the “citizen-empowerment hypothesis” of internet use, and show that the “group involvement–social-information-oriented” mode of internet use has a positive effect on the conventional and unconventional political participation of urban internet users. However, the study fails to support the “time-displacement hypothesis”. It shows that the “individual involvement–entertainment-oriented” mode of internet use does not have a negative impact on the conventional and unconventional political participation of Chinese urban internet users. Similarly, the “group involvement–entertainment-oriented” mode of internet use has no significant effect on unconventional political participation. Taken together, the study shows that, in general, internet use has promoted the political participation of Chinese urban netizens, but there are significant differences between the different modes of internet use. As a revolutionary medium, the internet not only provides people with a convenient way of obtaining and communicating information, but also creates more challenges for state governance. The way in which the government should deal with different forms of political participation in the internet age will be an important research topic in the future.

This chapter explores students’ shifting forms of political and pedagogical participation since the early nineteenth century and in particular from the 1960s until the present. In combining historical enquiries with ethnographic fieldwork, it investigates how students have influenced and participated in the shaping of the university and larger society, and how their room for decision-making and their political activities have changed over the last two centuries. The chapter draws on and further develops the notion of ‘figure’ and ‘figuration’ used by, amongst others, feminist oriented thinkers. By focusing on moments of friction as generative sites where conflicting student figures are momentarily formed, the chapter discusses the emergence and transformation of the student as a revolutionary and transformative figure. It shows how different groups of students, in order to promote social and political change, have prioritised different forms of political participation and conjured up and located themselves in different kinds of social wholes (e.g. the student body, the people, a generation of youth). It identifies a contemporary shift towards new modes of flexible and single-issue oriented participation and argues that this can potentially work as either a creative form of anti-capitalism or an adaption to capitalism which has itself become flexible and networked.

Previous studies show consistent differences in how people evaluate future consequences and implications of this for a variety of phenomena. The implications for the individual propensity for taking part in different forms of political participation have received limited scholarly attention, however. This is unfortunate since it affects how people voice their concerns over future problems and thereby also whether and how decision-makers become aware of these concerns. We here examine this in a cross-sectional study conducted in Finland (N = 1,673). We apply the Considerations of Future Consequences (CFC) framework as a measure of individuals’ future orientation and distinguish between considerations of future consequences (CFC-future) and considerations of immediate consequences (CFC-Immediate). We study the direct associations with institutionalized and non-institutionalized political participation and the moderating role of political trust in shaping these associations. Our results show CFC-future has a positive association with both institutionalized and non-institutionalized political participation, while CFC-immediate has a negative association with participation. Political trust moderates the association with non-institutionalized political participation since the association is stronger for citizens with low political trust. This may suggest that citizens use particular participatory avenues to communicate their worries over future problems, and to which decision-makers must be attentive.

We study the impact of the diffusion of high-speed Internet on different forms of political participation, using municipal data from Italy from 1996 to 2013. Our empirical strategy exploits the fact that the cost of providing ADSL-based broadband services in a given municipality depends on its relative position in the pre-existing voice telecommunications infrastructure. We first show that broadband Internet had a substantial negative effect on turnout in parliamentary elections up until 2008. It was, however, positively associated with other forms of political participation, both online and offline, such as the emergence of local online grassroots protest movements. The negative effect of the Internet on turnout in parliamentary elections essentially reversed after 2008, when local grassroots movements coalesced into the Five-Star Movement electoral list. Our findings support the view that: (i) the effect of the Internet varies across different forms of political participation; (ii) it changes over time, as new political actors emerge that are able to take advantage of the new technology to attract disenchanted or demobilized voters; and (iii) these new forms of mobilization eventually feed back into the mainstream electoral process, converting “exit” back into “voice.”

Physical and mental health is known to have wide influence over most aspects of social life-be it schooling and employment or marriage and broader social engagement-but has received limited attention in explaining different forms of political participation. We analyze a unique dataset with a rich array of objective measures of cognitive and physical well-being and two objective measures of political participation, voting and contributing money to campaigns and parties. For voting, each aspect of health has a powerful effect on par with traditional predictors of participation such as education. In contrast, health has little to no effect on making campaign contributions. We recommend additional attention to the multifaceted affects of health on different forms of political participation.

This chapter provides an explanatory framework of conventional political participation in Turkey. One core institution of democracy that seems to have withstood, to some extent, all the erosive influences upon it in Turkish politics has been the elections. Voters seem to be highly inclined to vote even when the standards of fairness of elections suffered in the last few years. Populist authoritarian practices of the 2010s in Turkey seem not to have diminished the importance of competitive elections, while the voter turnout continued to stay very high at over 80 percent in most elections, which is unprecedented among European, North American, and East Asian countries. At the same time, other forms of political participation, including contacting authorities and campaigning remain low. A comparative study of conventional political participation since the 1970s, promises to provide us insight into the nature of conventional participation in Turkish politics. Using statistical analyses, data collected through the Turkish Election Studies and International Social Survey Program annual surveys are analyzed to chart the evolution of different forms of political participation and the role of sociopolitical, cultural, and economic factors in shaping these forms. Survey research conducted since the 1970s indicate that under the influence of changing political opportunity structure and increasing political resources, not only voting turnout but also campaign related activism, mass–elite contacts, and participation in discussions to solve social, communal problems have also increased in the last four decades in Turkey.

We investigate the impact of the diffusion of high-speed Internet on different forms of political participation, using data from Italy. We exploit differences in the availability of ADSL broadband technology across municipalities, using the exogenous variation induced by the fact that the cost of providing ADSL-based Internet services in a given municipality depends on its relative position in the pre-existing voice telecommunications infrastructure. We first show that broadband Internet had a substantial negative effect on turnout in parliamentary elections between 1996 and 2008. However, we also find that it was positively associated with other forms of political participation, both online and offline: the emergence of local online grassroots protest movements, and turnout in national referenda (largely opposed by mainstream parties). We then show that the negative effect of Internet on turnout in parliamentary elections is essentially reversed after 2008, when the local grassroots movements coalesce into the Five-Star Movement (M5S) electoral list. Our findings are consistent with the view that: 1) the effect of Internet availability on political participation changes across different forms of engagement; 2) it also changes over time, as new political actors emerge who can take advantage of the new technology to tap into the existence of a disenchanted or demobilized contingent of voters; and 3) these new forms of mobilization eventually feed back into the mainstream electoral process, converting exit back into voice.

It often remains unclear how young citizens are combining various forms of political participation, as well as why they choose some over others, especially within a single-issue movement. Moreover, little is known about how social networking sites (SNS) fit into the political repertoires of citizens. Therefore, this study explores youths’ political participation patterns in the context of the 2019 youth-led climate strikes. We rely on data from a paper and pencil survey among 498 high school students in Belgium. To identify different types of activists, the study used latent class analysis (LCA). In addition, a multinomial logistic regression was conducted to assess how identified participation types differ from each other. Four different participation repertoires regarding the climate issue were identified, each distinctive in the way they rely on different forms of political participation. In addition, membership to each of the different classes is associated with a unique set of characteristics (in terms of political efficacies, climate issue involvement, and online expression motives). The article shows how SNS make up a crucial part of youths’ issue-specific participation patterns and sheds light on the mechanisms underlying their participation choices within the climate movement.

We investigate the impact of the diffusion of high-speed Internet on different forms of political participation, using data from Italy. We exploit differences in the availability of ADSL broadband technology across municipalities, using the exogenous variation induced by the fact that the cost of providing ADSL-based Internet services in a given municipality depends on its relative position in the pre-existing voice telecommunications infrastructure. We first show that broadband Internet had a substantial negative effect on turnout in parliamentary elections between 1996 and 2008. However, we also find that it was positively associated with other forms of political participation, both online and offline: the emergence of local online grassroots protest movements, and turnout in national referenda (largely opposed by mainstream parties). We then show that the negative effect of Internet on turnout in parliamentary elections is essentially reversed after 2008, when the local grassroots movements coalesce into the Five-Star Movement (M5S) electoral list. Our findings are consistent with the view that: 1) the effect of Internet availability on political participation changes across different forms of engagement; 2) it also changes over time, as new political actors emerge who can take advantage of the new technology to tap into the existence of a disenchanted or demobilized contingent of voters; and 3) these new forms of mobilization eventually feed back into the mainstream electoral process, converting “exit” back into “voice”.

While the political communication and participation activities of young adults are changing, this is often not adequately captured by research due to a too narrow conceptualization of the phenomenon. Our approach conceptualizes political communication as activities comprising the reception of political content, interpersonal communication regarding political issues and political participation. We incorporated both analog and digital media, as well as different forms of political participation, to reflect the complex reality of political communication activities of young adults in the digital age. On the basis of a sample from 2013, we investigated the patterns of political communication of young adults (ages 18–33 years). This age group represents the first generation to have grown up under the ubiquitous influence of the internet and other modern information technologies. In addition, we examined factors influencing the formation of different political communication patterns of this generation. Results of cluster analyses demonstrated that young adults should not be seen as a homogeneous group. Rather, we found six communication types. Interestingly, no online-only type of political communication was revealed, By applying multinomial logistic regression analysis, we were able to demonstrate that socio-demographic variables, individual resources and cognitive involvement in politics influence the likelihood of belonging to more active political communication types. The present study investigated various information and communication opportunities of young adults, and is rare in terms of the richness of data provided. Our conceptual innovative approach enables a better understanding of young adults’ complex political communication patterns. Moreover, our approach encourages follow-up research, as our results provide a valuable starting point for intergenerational comparisons regarding changes in political engagement among young adults in Germany, as well as for cross-country analysis regarding different generations of young adults.

This article examines the relationship between age and four types of political participation. Previous research has examined the age-participation nexus in the context of established democracies. In contrast, few studies have been devoted to assessing age differences in other contexts, particularly those of Africa, where the meaning of age and age groups could be different than in industrialised democracies. We argued in Africa that age's effect on political participation would vary depending on the country and across different forms of political participation. Analysing Afrobarometer survey data for 34 African countries, we find that the relationship between age and three forms of participation (voting, contacting and collective action) is curvilinear, with younger and older people less likely to participate. While for protest participation, the relationship between age and participation is linear, with protest decreasing with age. Next, we uncover that the countries’ policy formulation, implementation and electoral integrity affect the relationship between age and political participation. In contrast, breaking down the analysis into regional subsamples (West, Central, East, Southern, and North Africa), we observe no patterns of regional differences concerning political participation.

This article explores the linkage between different conceptualisations of democracy and forms of political participation. Specifically, it examines the correlates of conventional and unconventional modes of political participation, especially in light of three major understandings of democracy, namely liberal, redistributive, and authoritative understandings. This article maintains that different notions of democracy have their unique relationships with different forms of political participation. The article argues that people with a predominantly liberal notion of democracy are expected to partake in both conventional and unconventional modes of political participation, whereas those with an authoritative understanding of democracy are relatively more hesitant to take part in both forms. Finally, citizens with a redistributive notion of democracy are expected to appear more in unconventional forms of political participation, such as boycotts and lawful demonstrations. We test our arguments based on a global and up-to-date dataset and a multi-level framework, which covers more than 100,000 democratic citizens across the globe.

Unequal political participation is widely considered a problem of democratic representation. Citizens with fewer resources typically report lower levels of participation. Lack of good health has been identified as one barrier to participation. However, poor health may have heterogeneous impacts on participation, depending on the type of health issue. Moreover, poor health may affect participation patterns differently, depending on age. Previous research has not yet systematically examined these issues. We address these gaps by using European Social Survey data, which includes self-reports of a variety of physical health conditions and engagement in different forms of political participation. The results show that most physical health conditions are related to political participation; however, except for turnout, physical health problems mobilize individuals into action. This effect is strongest among younger individuals, and the health gap in participation evens out in later life. The condition-specific effects are similar across different forms of physical health conditions. Our findings are consistent with the grievance and identity theories of political participation. Younger citizens, in particular, may experience poor health or physical impairment as unjust and are then mobilized into political action. We discuss the implications for the broader understanding of mechanisms behind political behavior and suggest that health problems are often a motivator for political action rather than an obstacle.