Motivational Patterns and Differential Participation in a Canadian Party: The Ontario Liberals

Abstract

Little is known about the motivations and activity patterns of party workers in Western democracies other than the United States. Equally important, linkages between different motives for initiating and sustaining party work and levels of activity within party organizations are virtually unexplored, and hence, the analytic utility of motivational variables remains problematic. To help fill these lacunae in the scholarly literature, this paper focuses on the motivational patterns and activity levels of members of one Canadian party-the Ontario Liberals. In accordance with expectations, the data reveal considerable motivational diversity as well as substantial motivational reorientation and change over time. Regression analyses indicate that partisanship and friendship for candidate motives have statistically significant independent effects on intraparty participation rates. Additionally, the regression analyses suggest that variables repeatedly found to correlate with political participation in studies of mass publics may have little power to explain differential participation within party organizations.