The Payoffs of Organizational Membership for Political Activism in Established Democracies

Abstract

This article contributes to long-standing debates about the influence of voluntary association membership on political participation by drawing on recent advances in counterfactual analysis. Propensity score matching methods are used to assess the effects of different forms of membership (active and passive) in distinct organizational forms (civic and political) on political activism, taking selection bias into account. Results demonstrate that organizational membership increases levels of nonconventional political action—for active and passive members in both political and civic groups. The “participatory dividend” is highest for members of political organizations, but there is also support for the argument that membership in civic organizations enhances political activism, net of selection. Focusing only on the subset of joiners, however, suggests that the distinction between active and passive membership is less pronounced than skeptics of such symbolic affiliation have argued.