Repertoires of political participation: Macroeconomic conditions, socioeconomic resources, and participation gaps in Europe

Abstract

The European economic crisis has stimulated a great deal of research linking contextual macroeconomic conditions and political outputs, as conventional and unconventional political participation. Nevertheless, such research has often treated forms of political participation as independent from each other, overlooking how citizens can choose from combinations of political actions to influence politics in contexts with varying levels of macroeconomic performance. This article, instead, focuses on two common forms of participation – voting and protesting – and studies whether engagement in “repertoires” of participation – the “disengaged” (abstaining and not protesting), the “duty-based” (voting and not protesting), the “protest” (abstaining and protesting), and the “all-round” (voting and protesting) repertoires – varies according to countries’ macroeconomic conditions in Europe in 30 countries over time. This article also considers that the effect of macroeconomic conditions on repertoires of participation might depend on citizens’ socioeconomic resources – such as education, employment status, and income – with consequences for participation gaps or inequalities. Using multilevel models and data from seven rounds of the European Social Survey, this article shows that in contexts where macroeconomic conditions are worse, the probability of engaging in the “protest” repertoire increases, while the probability of engaging in the other three repertoires does not depend on the economy. In addition, the article finds that participation gaps narrow in the “disengaged” and “duty-based” repertoires in contexts with poorer macroeconomic performance, while the gaps in the “protest” and “all-round” repertoires do not change across contexts with different economic conditions.