Non-Electoral Civic Engagement in California

Abstract

DOI 10.1515/cjpp-2013-0001 Calif. J. Politics Policy 2013; 5(4): 671–710 James E. Prieger* and Kelly M. Faltis Non-Electoral Civic Engagement in California Why Does the State Lag the Nation? Abstract: We examine citizen engagement in political and social civic life in Cali- fornia. We begin by comparing the state to the nation at large, and find that Cali- fornia lags the nation in non-electoral civic engagement. The data also show that Whites were more engaged than Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians, and native citizens born in the US are more engaged than citizens born elsewhere and non-citizens. To analyze whether demographic factors determine why civic engagement differs in California, we employ a regression analysis. The participation gaps between Cali- fornia and the rest of the nation (excluding New York and Texas) can be entirely explained by differences in demographics for three of the five measures of civic engagement. For the other two, the differing demographic profile of California explains 45% to 59% of the gaps. We also find that ethnicity, race, and citizenship are generally the most important determinants and explain much of the California engagement gaps. The fact that California has more Hispanics, Asians, natural- ized citizens, and non-citizens than the rest of the US thus appears to go a long way toward explaining the lower level of civic engagement in the state. Keywords: California; civic engagement; Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. *Corresponding author: James E. Prieger, Associate Professor, Pepperdine University, School of Public Policy, Malibu, CA, USA, e-mail: James.Prieger@pepperdine.edu Kelly M. Faltis: Davenport Institute, School of Public Policy, Malibu, CA, USA 1 Introduction Alexis de Tocqueville argued that a citizenry engaged in both political and civil associations is vital to liberal democracy (Tocqueville 2002). The assumption that a civically engaged citizenry results in a healthier republic underlies much current “neo-Tocquevillian” (Berman 1997) research in the area of civic and politi- cal engagement. Despite the importance of civic engagement, much research affirms that civic engagement (at least as traditionally measured) has declined in recent decades (Putnam 1995a, 1995b, 2000; Galston and Levine 1998; Levine