Schools for democracy? The relationship between nonprofit volunteering and direct public participation

Abstract

This article explores the effects of volunteering in nonprofit organizations on direct forms of public participation, such as attending public meetings, signing petitions, and protesting. The paper hypothesizes and tests that through volunteering in nonprofits, individuals may become engaged and democratic citizens, which in turn increases the likelihood of their participation in administrative and political processes. I propose that the extant testing of this relationship suffers from an endogeneity problem, which I counter with the instrumental variable technique. The results of the analyses suggest that individuals’ volunteering in nonprofits increases participation in public meetings, but does not affect their likelihood of protesting and petition signing. The findings from the study have implications for how we think about democratic public administration, nonprofit organizations, and public participation.