Different Forms Of Political Participation Research Articles

Politics 2.0: The Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation

We investigate the impact of the diffusion of high-speed Internet on different forms of political participation, using data from Italy. We exploit differences in the availability of ADSL broadband technology across municipalities, using the exogenous variation induced by the fact that the cost of providing ADSL-based Internet services in a given municipality depends on its relative position in the pre-existing voice telecommunications infrastructure. We first show that broadband Internet had a substantial negative effect on turnout in parliamentary elections between 1996 and 2008. However, we also find that it was positively associated with other forms of political participation, both online and offline: the emergence of local online grassroots protest movements, and turnout in national referenda (largely opposed by mainstream parties). We then show that the negative effect of Internet on turnout in parliamentary elections is essentially reversed after 2008, when the local grassroots movements coalesce into the Five-Star Movement (M5S) electoral list. Our findings are consistent with the view that: 1) the effect of Internet availability on political participation changes across different forms of engagement; 2) it also changes over time, as new political actors emerge who can take advantage of the new technology to tap into the existence of a disenchanted or demobilized contingent of voters; and 3) these new forms of mobilization eventually feed back into the mainstream electoral process, converting exit back into voice.

How Different Forms of Health Matter to Political Participation.

Physical and mental health is known to have wide influence over most aspects of social life-be it schooling and employment or marriage and broader social engagement-but has received limited attention in explaining different forms of political participation. We analyze a unique dataset with a rich array of objective measures of cognitive and physical well-being and two objective measures of political participation, voting and contributing money to campaigns and parties. For voting, each aspect of health has a powerful effect on par with traditional predictors of participation such as education. In contrast, health has little to no effect on making campaign contributions. We recommend additional attention to the multifaceted affects of health on different forms of political participation.

Youth Participation in Context: the Impact of Youth Transition Regimes on Political Action Strategies in Europe

This article examines the impact of youth transition regimes (YTR) on the political participation strategies of young people from 26 locations in 12 European countries. The central hypothesis is that the way that youth transitions take place in different European contexts determines the position of youth as a group in the system of social relations that Bourdieu calls the ‘social space’. Depending upon this position, young people may be more inclined to participation through institutional channels or political protest, or, in contrast, remain inactive. Thus, the specific context of youth in each society (measured through the exposure to risk and vulnerability, the length of the pathway to adulthood and the role of the welfare state) plays a crucial role in defining young people's political action strategies. Multilevel logistic regression analysis using the MYPLACE survey, the specific operationalization of the YTR and other aggregate control variables reveal that YTR centrality is a very important contextual predictor for explaining different forms of political participation among young people in Europe.

Income distribution and political participation: a multilevel analysis

An extensive theoretical and empirical literature already investigates the impact of income inequality on citizens’ involvement in specific politically-oriented activities such as voting, membership of political groups, participation in political meetings, etc. In order to broaden still further the theoretical perspective on the connection between income inequality and citizens’ political participation, this paper links the literature on inequality and political engagement with the one proposing a conceptualization of different forms of political participation. More specifically, this paper proposes a conceptual framework that analyzes how income inequality interacts with individuals’ income position in explaining citizens’ involvement in conventional and unconventional political activities. The core of the paper focuses on a multilevel mixed-effects empirical analysis carried out on survey data collected by the European Values Study project; its results support the hypothesis that income inequality significantly shapes the effect of household income in determining citizens’ forms of political engagement.

Politics 2.0: The Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation

We investigate the impact of the diffusion of high-speed Internet on different forms of political participation, using data from Italy. We exploit differences in the availability of ADSL broadband technology across municipalities, using the exogenous variation induced by the fact that the cost of providing ADSL-based Internet services in a given municipality depends on its relative position in the pre-existing voice telecommunications infrastructure. We first show that broadband Internet had a substantial negative effect on turnout in parliamentary elections between 1996 and 2008. However, we also find that it was positively associated with other forms of political participation, both online and offline: the emergence of local online grassroots protest movements, and turnout in national referenda (largely opposed by mainstream parties). We then show that the negative effect of Internet on turnout in parliamentary elections is essentially reversed after 2008, when the local grassroots movements coalesce into the Five-Star Movement (M5S) electoral list. Our findings are consistent with the view that: 1) the effect of Internet availability on political participation changes across different forms of engagement; 2) it also changes over time, as new political actors emerge who can take advantage of the new technology to tap into the existence of a disenchanted or demobilized contingent of voters; and 3) these new forms of mobilization eventually feed back into the mainstream electoral process, converting “exit” back into “voice”.

Good News for the Future? Young People, Internet Use, and Political Participation

The role of traditional media and the Internet in relation to young people’s political participation has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. Starting from a notion of differential media use and an encompassing notion of political participation, this article tests the relationships between media use (newspaper, television, and Internet) and offline and online forms of political participation. Findings from a national survey ( n = 2,409, age 16 to 24) reveal that a variety of Internet uses are positively related with different forms of political participation, whereas the relationship between most uses of traditional media and participation are weak, albeit positive. The study rejects the predictive power of duration of media use but finds support for the type of media use. Positive relationships between online communication and noninformational uses of the Internet vis-à-vis participation are found. The research demonstrates how a wider and more contemporary conception of political participation, together with more detailed measures of media use, can help to gain better insight in the roles media can play in affecting participatory behavior among the Internet generation.

Efficacy and Estrangement: Effects of Voting

This study examined changes in political efficacy and feelings of estrangement as a function of voting behavior in the 2008 presidential election in the U.S. Participants (n = 224), recruited from an online marketing company's representative panel of U.S. adults, completed a survey 4‐6 weeks before the election and again 2‐4 weeks after the election. Changes in internal and external political efficacy and feelings of estrangement were examined for three groups of voters (McCain voters, Obama voters, and non‐voters) as well as by party affiliation. Internal political efficacy was and remained relatively high among Obama and McCain voters pre‐election to post‐election, but decreased for non‐voters. Among Democrats, there was a significant increase in internal political efficacy, among Republicans, there was no change, and among those with no or a different party affiliation, there was a significant decrease. External political efficacy significantly increased pre‐election to post‐election among Obama voters and non‐voters, but decreased for McCain voters. Additionally, post‐election cultural estrangement was significantly higher among non‐voters than voters. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical implications for understanding the potential impact of different forms of political participation. Several of the specific and distinctive aspects of the 2008 election and President Obama's campaign are also highlighted as they relate to voting behavior and potential changes in the American electorate.

Remembering and Forgetting a Contentious Past

By exploring the role of cultural associations, different forms of political participation, and mass media on opposite sides of the old Italo-Yugoslav boundary, this article links opposing interpretations of the past to differences in state institutions and reconfigured social groups. Striking differences in how narrators remember episodes of past violence over time point to contentious processes of state formation after wars and to the impact of institutionalized commemorative practices on individual memory.

Media Use and ParticipatoryDemocracy in South Korea

Analyzing data from a telephone survey of South Korean respondents, this study explored facilitating and inhibiting effects of mass media use on political participation. It was hypothesized that the facilitating or inhibiting effect is dependent on the specific types of content presented by the media. Consistent with previous findings from the United States, our data supported the idea that news media use plays an important role in motivating participatory behaviors. Contrary to this procivic role, however, we found that viewing entertainment television programs may undermine such behaviors. This study also examined in detail the mechanism through which the media may have effects on different forms of political participation.

The relationship between political participation and civic community of migrants in the Netherlands

This article examines the relationship between different forms of political participation and the civic participation in organizations of ethnic minorities in the Netherlands. We have investigated the turnout rates and voting behaviour of migrants, the participation of councillors from ethnic minority groups and party of officials in four cities and the organizations of ethnic minorities in Amsterdam and on a national level. The combination of all this information supplies us with a picture of the civic community of the ethnic groups in the Netherlands and we theorize about explanations on differences between these groups.

Types of political participation: A multidimensional analysis

Abstract. Studies of political participation have traditionally differentiated conventional from non‐conventional, legal from illegal, modes of participation. In this paper we to develop a more complex scheme, using the technique of multidimensional scaling (MDS). We look at the perceptions that individuals hold about different forms of political participation that range from voting to armed violence and include other legal or illegal manifestations. The results show the existence of two meaningful underlying dimensions. The first relates to ‘within‐system’versus ‘out‐of‐system’activities; the second relates to ‘progressive’versus ‘conservative’activities. A cluster analysis is then used to develop a typology of political participation.