Toward a Rational Civil Society: Deliberative Thinking, Civic Participation, and Self-Efficacy among Taiwanese Young Adults

Abstract

To explore the mechanisms that foster rational, communicative, and actionable citizenship, this research proposes a mediation as well as moderation research framework that links deliberative thinking, political self-efficacy, social capital, and civic participation. Data from 865 Taiwanese university students are analyzed with structural equation modeling, showing a positive association of deliberative thinking to political self-efficacy and civic participation, as well as a positive association between them. Moreover, the association between deliberative thinking and civic participation is significantly and positively mediated by political self-efficacy. When background factors are controlled, only social capital is identified to be moderating any associations between variables in this study. The established association between deliberative thinking and political self-efficacy and that between deliberative thinking and the non-electoral, as well as community-based dimensions of civic participation, are significantly weaker among those possessing less social capital, while such differences are not significant in the case of gender and household income. Based on these findings, the relative roles of deliberative thinking, political self-efficacy, and social capital in promoting effective deliberative democracy will be discussed.