Political Organization and Political Participation: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty in Preindustrial Societies

Abstract

Comparative political studies provide grounds for two very different and competing answers to questions about systemic differences in participation. On the one hand, the political development literature focuses on how increases in the level of resources in a society are the basis for increased political involvement. It suggests that the rising socioeconomic capacity of a system is associated with increasing skills of either a technical nature, such as literacy and wealth, or a psychological nature, such as efficacy and community identification. Second, greater complexity creates higher interdependence with its greater pressure for collective action. An alternative view looks less at the level of resources in a polity than it does at their organization. It asks how the social and political organization of society systematically includes and excludes groups and individuals from political life and creates stronger or weaker pressures for joint decision making. The tension between the two perspectives is illustrated in Verba, Nie, and Kim's cross-national study of participation which shows that, while the level of individual resources is related to political participation in each country they study, there is great cross-national variation in the magnitude of the association between resources and participation patterns, because organizations, such as political parties, can variously weaken or reinforce the effects of resource differences on action.'