Mobilizing on the margin: How does interpersonal recruitment affect citizen participation in politics?

Abstract

This study examines how interpersonal recruitment affects participation in demanding forms of political activity. Previous studies have argued that interpersonal recruitment causally affects participation. However, recruitment attempts are selectively targeted toward people with high participation potential. This implies that interpersonal recruitment may work simply because recruiters ask the people who would participate anyway. Using propensity score matching, I show that interpersonal recruitment has larger effects on non-electoral forms of participation than electoral ones such as campaign volunteer activity. I find little evidence that personal contact increases campaign donation. I also demonstrate that the effect of recruitment is not constant across individuals but varies by the propensity of being a recruitment target. Ironically, people who have less chance of receiving requests are more likely to be affected. I discuss the implications of these findings for declining and increasingly unequal political participation.