Recent Articles in the Field of Public Opinion Research

Abstract

In this section the International Journal of Public Opinion Research reviews articles that have recently been published in peer-refereed journals and which broadly relate to the field of public opinion. The intention is not to give an exhaustive overview of a given study but rather to alert our readers to interesting ideas and research in our field. Cross and Young investigate what motivates young people who have joined a political party to become actively involved in party affairs, studying the case of the Canadian Liberal Party (which had been in government for the previous 12 years at the time of their research). Earlier research by the same authors had found great variation between party members in their levels of activity, and a survey of party members of all ages in 2000 found that members aged 25 or under were more active than their older counterparts, and that those who joined at an early age remained more active throughout their membership. For this paper, Cross and Young conducted a postal survey of 18- to 25-year-old Liberal Party members in 2003–2004, measuring party activism in 12 categories. They find that those who have joined a party branch dedicated to young members are significantly more active than those who have not; but they also note that this higher level of activism seems to be confined to activity within the youth wing, and that youth wing membership is not associated with greater involvement in mainstream party activities, such as campaigning or intra-party decision making. They also discuss the nature and role of political party membership more generally: they note that parties’ democratic responsibilities require that they maintain strong ties with civil society, one aspect of which is their local activism, and argue that their findings establish that youth members are crucial to this.