Social networkers and careerists: Explaining high-intensity activism among British party members

Paul Webb,Monica Poletti,Tim Bale

doi:10.1177/0192512118820691

Abstract

Drawing on survey data on the members of six British parties gathered in the immediate aftermath of the general election of 2015, this article asks what motivates members to engage in high-intensity election campaign activism. It argues that two factors are especially prominent: the aspiration to pursue a career in politics (which only accounts for a small minority of these activists) and becoming integrated into a local social network (which accounts for a much larger proportion). By contrast, members who lack either of these characteristics, but are mainly motivated to join by ideological impulses, largely restrict themselves to low-intensity activity. These findings are likely to be especially pertinent to countries with single-member district electoral systems.

Highlights

Drawing on survey data on the members of six British parties gathered in the immediate aftermath of the general election of 2015, this paper asks what motivates members to engage in high-intensity election campaign activism? It argues that two factors are especially prominent: the aspiration to pursue a career in politics and becoming integrated into a local social network
We demonstrate that two factors are especially prominent in the context of single-member electoral districts: the aspiration to pursue a career in politics and being integrated in a local social network based around party life
In this paper, we have sought to identify the key factors in driving party members to engage in high-intensity election campaign work on half of their party, as measured by the amount of time they commit to such work, and the nature of that work; we define high-intensity acts as those things which are most demanding in terms of effort, interaction with voters, and level of responsibility

Summary

Introduction

Drawing on survey data on the members of six British parties gathered in the immediate aftermath of the general election of 2015, this paper asks what motivates members to engage in high-intensity election campaign activism? It argues that two factors are especially prominent: the aspiration to pursue a career in politics (which only accounts for a small minority of these activists) and becoming integrated into a local social network (which accounts for a much larger proportion). H2b: The more embedded in a local party social network an individual is, the more willing a party member will be to undertake high-intensity forms of activity in an election campaign.

Results

Conclusion