Abstract
Well-functioning democracies depend on citizens’ ability to make accurate political judgments and express them in the public sphere. Thus, in this research, we aim to better understand the role of political knowledge and political trust in shaping young Poles’ willingness to engage in unconventional participation such as signing a petition, boycotting specific products, taking part in a peaceful demonstration, or engaging in social media activities. We distinguish between two types of political knowledge: knowledge about the rules of the game and current political knowledge, which provide a more insightful look into the complex nature of relationships between political knowledge, political trust, and unconventional participation. In two studies (Study 1, N = 570 and Study 2; N = 1048) we found that unconventional participation was positively predicted by political trust, and political knowledge about the rules of the game. We also found a significant interaction effect between political trust and current political knowledge, suggesting that those high in current political knowledge may be more willing to participate only when being distrustful towards the current political system. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.
Highlights
Democracy cannot thrive in the absence of citizen participation
We found a negative relationship between the two types of political knowledge and political trust but not with interpersonal trust (Table 2)
We examined the regression model with political participation as the dependent variable. We introduced both types of political knowledge and political trust
Summary
Democracy cannot thrive in the absence of citizen participation. As Dalton stated: “Without public involvement in the process, democracy loses both its legitimacy and its guiding force” (Dalton, 2008, p. 35). Recent studies have delivered some disturbing results regarding young people’s willingness to engage in politics. It seems that they are disengaging from political life (Arvanitakis & Marren, 2009; Henn & Weinstein, 2006; Henn et al, 2002) and are dissatisfied with, as well as alienated from politics (Henn et al, 2005; Kimberlee, 2002; Wattenberg, 2002). The aforementioned trends are especially visible in young democracies where political culture is not deeply rooted in everyday life (Grasso, 2018; Kitanova, 2020).
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