Three Routes To Political Party Participation

Abstract

PARTICIPATION in political party activities has been investigated by numerous researchers in recent years, but most of these studies have examined only party leaders such as precinct committeemen and county chairmen.' A few studies have focused on volunteer party workers2 or party members (in Europe) ,3 but virtually none have covered the full range of party participation. Moreover, most of this previous research has focused on the motivations or incentives that lead people to party involvement and has given little attention to social factors that might influence participation in party affairs.4 Those few studies that have given serious attention to social variables have generally not attempted to carry their analysis beyond reporting zero-order relationships.5 The literature on general political participation, meanwhile, says very little about party activism. Lane did not distinguish among any of the various types of political activity.6 Key gave only brief attention to party activists, noting simply that they tend to have above-average education, occupations, and incomes.7 Milbrath included several different forms of party participation in his hierarchy of political involvement, but did not specifically examine any of these activities.8 Alford identified attendance at political meetings as one of four basic types of