Modes Of Political Participation Research Articles

Social Media Political Information Use and Political Participation of the Net Generation

Given the pervasiveness of social media in our contemporary communication environment, this paper explored the aptitude of social media use for political information in empowering the wired youth with more diverse political information which is deemed as key precursor of political participation. To be more specific, this paper examined how the utilisation of political information on social media predicts political knowledge, political efficacy, and different modes of political participation (offline, online, and cyber) of the Net Generation. There were 379 Malaysian students aged between 18 and 24, who depend extensively on social media platforms as their primary reservoir of political news and information took part in a self-administered online survey questionnaire. Among the key findings of the current study are: (i) political informational use of social media predicts political efficacy but not political knowledge; (ii) political informational use of social media predicts offline, online, and cyber political participation via political efficacy; (iii) political knowledge does not predict political participation; meanwhile (iv) political efficacy predicts political participation. All in all, political informational use of social media holds the most potent positive effect on political efficacy.

‘I always felt I have something I must do in my life’: meaning making in the political lives of refugee non-citizens

ABSTRACT This article discusses the potential of bringing biographical and cultural sociology together in the analysis of the political lives of refugee non-citizens. Our analysis is based on empirical research conducted in two regions outside the capital areas of Austria and Czechia. The conceptual focus is on modes of political participation and if and how they shift during the migration experience. To explore the political lives of refugee non-citizens, we call upon complementary theories, on alternative forms of (non)citizenship and on the autonomy of migration and asylum as regards agency in the everyday practices of people who cross borders. The findings show that our research participants’ political lives tend to remain rather untouched by the migration experience itself.

The influence of media use on different modes of political participation in China: political trust as the mediating factor

ABSTRACT Studies demonstrate that political trust and media use are important predictors of political participation. In this study, we leverage Asian Barometer Survey data on China to clarify how media use to obtain political information predicts how citizens participate in politics and whether political trust mediates these relationships. This study finds that traditional and new media use have distinct relationships with electoral and non-electoral participation. In addition, trust in local government is negatively related to non-electoral. These findings may demonstrate how media use predicts different modes of participation and the influence of political trust.

The politicization of everyday life: understanding the impact of the 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Protests on pro-democracy protesters’ political participation in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT The 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill protests in Hong Kong culminated in diverse forms of political participation, but as yet little attention has been paid to the impact on the pro-democracy movement at the micro-level. This paper explores pro-democracy protesters’ evolving views of politics and their new modes of political participation during and after the protests. Using interview data, this paper shows that participants in the pro-democracy movement have increasingly recognized the inseparable relationship between everyday life and political life. This paper examines two forms of everyday political participation – political consumption and digital activism – that have been widely deployed by protesters to express political claims, circulate political information, and garner support from local and international audiences. While the politicization of everyday life provided impetus to street demonstrations in 2019, it has continued despite the adoption of a wider scope of repressive measures by the Chinese and Hong Kong governments after the protests. Through the case of Hong Kong, this paper demonstrates how, in an authoritarian context, everyday resistance is applied to struggle for regime change and democratization.

Internet-mediated Islamist semiotics: policing memes and the R4BIA pizza effect

ABSTRACT This article explores the semiotics and trans-local dynamics of the decision by a Mancunian pizzeria to brand itself using what is widely regarded as a characteristically Islamist internet meme (the so-called ‘R4bia Sign’). The article explores the genesis, genealogy, and development of a salient religio-political symbol as a means to interrogate specific models of cultural production and reproduction. It focuses in particular on the character of meme-making as a mode of political participation and as part of dissident groups’ repertoires of action. In the process, it problematizes contemporary state policy in relation to policing internet-centred discourse among minority and dissident groups. It is particularly critical of indiscriminate interventions which obscure dynamic, reciprocal, and contextual transformations of meaning associated with ostensibly fixed symbols.

Modes of political participation: analytical approaches to mapping the citizen engagement

Modes of political participation: analytical approaches to mapping the citizen engagement

Return migration, crime, and electoral engagement in Mexico

Since 2006, the Great Recession and tighter migration policies in the U.S. have increased the rates of return migration to Mexico. Scholars debate whether high rates of return motivate greater electoral engagement via the democratic norms returnees may bring back with them. An alternative account holds that returnees are seen as dissimilar by their non-migrant co-nationals, causing returnees to disengage from politics. We contribute to this debate using municipal data on voter turnout and on rates of return migration for the case of Mexico from 2000 to 2010. Relying on an instrumental strategy that exploits migrants’ exposure to changes in unemployment rates as an exogenous predictor for return, we find robust evidence that high rates of return result in less electoral participation in presidential and local elections. Besides, electoral disengagement seems to be intensified by the presence of criminal violence, which surged during our period of analysis. Return migration may have a positive impact on other modes of political participation; but at least when it comes to voting, our research aligns with the pessimistic camp of the debate in that return migration increases electoral apathy.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters of Michigan by Patricia Montemurri

Book Reviews 203 Patricia Montemurri. Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters of Michigan. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2020. Pp. 128. Bibliography. Paper: $21.99. Michigan’s oldest Catholic institution for women is neither a cathedral nor school, but a home in Monroe. There in 1845 the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHMs), started what became a fundamental part of Catholic education and community activism in the United States. Patricia Montemurri details this remarkable record stemming from the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe. The accompanying copious photographs, a hallmark of Arcadia Publishing’s Images series, illustrate these changes in the Sisters themselves and their surroundings. From their beginning the Monroe IHM Sisters pursued an active, engaged vision. Sister Theresa Maxis Duchemin, a Baltimore-born mixedrace Haitian, answered a priest’s call to build Catholic schools in eastern Michigan. In November 1845, she founded the Sisters of Providence in Monroe. In 1847 they changed the name to Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (hence the IHM designation). The IHMs came to be known as “Blue Nuns,” for their royal blue habits adorned with black veils. (11-12) In January 1846, the Sisters started Young Ladies Academy, which became St. Mary’s Academy, in a log cabin that doubled as their residence. From that humble beginning the Sisters’ home building kept growing. By 1866 a complex including an expanded Motherhouse, school, and orphanage arose on the River Raisin’s north bank. Meanwhile, the Sisters staffed parish schools throughout Detroit, southern Michigan, and the Midwest. A fire destroyed St. Mary’s Academy in 1929; rebuilding the school led to construction of a new Motherhouse in 1931. By the early 1970s there were over 1,300 IHM Sisters. The customary path to sisterhood took years: from postulancy, novitiate, first vows as a sister, and then, several years later, permanent vows. Most IHM sisters joined as teenagers, taking a religious name with their novice vows. Social interactions were monitored in silence. Consequently, the IHM Sisters’ energy poured into their duties, primarily staffing schools in the Detroit area including Marygrove College (founded 1929, closed 2019) and parochial schools in many now-demolished neighborhoods. (63-64) Meanwhile, Sister Ambrosia Fitzgerald earned a physics doctorate from the University of Michigan and worked on the Manhattan Project. (52) After the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), habit regulations were relaxed and many IHMs resumed using their birth names. Their energies turned to activism, especially the peace movement. (89-91) More recently this included environmentalism. From 2001-2003, 204 The Michigan Historical Review the IHM Motherhouse underwent a $56 million ecologically sustainable renovation. (93-100) While rooted in Monroe, the IHM Sisters expanded their ministries to Puerto Rico, Brazil, Uganda, and South Africa. The connections made there illuminated the IHM concern to serve “where there is need.” (8392 ) In recent decades the IHM numbers have declined. A common criticism argues that the IHMs eschewed their traditional habits and ways and now face irrelevance. Montemurri shows that, more accurately, the Sisters’ ideals and Michigan pragmatism shaped the changes in ministries. The book closes with another woman taking vows to join the community. (121-24) Montemurri’s experience reporting for the Detroit Free Press shines through her concise, expressive writing. This is her third book on Detroit Catholic subjects for Arcadia Publishing—after Blessed Solanus Casey (2018) and Detroit Gesu Catholic Church and School (2017). While amply illustrated with black and white photographs from the IHM archives, the book avoids the hagiography or apologetics one might expect from a history of a women’s religious order. The subjects themselves make their stories compelling. Montemurri indicates the reality often was not as stiff as the photographs might convey. (53) This visual work will appeal to historians of Detroit and southeastern Michigan as well as anyone taught by a Monroe IHM sister. Jeffrey Marlett The College of Saint Rose Ashley E. Nickels. Power, Participation, and Protest in Flint, Michigan: Unpacking the Policy Paradox of Municipal Takeovers. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2019. Pp. 272. Paper: $32.95. In Power, Participation, and Protest in Flint, Michigan, political scientist Ashley E. Nickels explores how municipal takeovers create new modes of political participation. Using Flint as...

Social Media and the Electoral Politics of India

the use of social media has become a new strategy for the political parties during election campaign. The social media is playing a significant role in changing people’s perception towards politics, politicians and modes of political participation. The advent of budget smart phones and affordable data packages has given greater scope for people to voice their opinion on social and political issues. With accounts in every social media platforms, the political parties and their leaders are using it as a new space to mobilize people. Since 2014 Lok Sabha election, the social media is playing a pro-active role in deciding which party will win the election. While this has led to increased speed of spread of information and news, it has also left the ordinary people vulnerable to fake news and exposed them to ‘hate speech’. One hand, the social media is making Indian democracy more inclusive thereby giving citizens the space to express their opinion. On the other hand, it is also creating a gap between different communities by spreading fake news and propaganda. Hence, there should be some kind of restrictions to using it. The misuse can lead to chaos and instability in a democracy.

Perceived inequality and modes of political participation in South Korea

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how the individual perceptions on income inequality and the inequality of opportunities affect two different modes of political participation, institutional and non-institutional, in South Korea. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyzes the Korean General Social Survey 2009 and 2014 and estimates logit and OLS models. Findings The authors find that neither the perceived inequality of income distribution nor the perceived inequality of opportunities affects the likelihood of individuals’ vote participation. The authors, however, find that the perceptions of inequality, both in terms of outcomes and opportunities affect citizens’ engagement in non-institutional forms of political participation. Originality/value This study provides a new discussion point about the political consequences of inequality in Korea. This paper distinguishes and analyzes the relative importance of perceived inequality of the outcomes and opportunities in democratic engagements. By considering various types of participation, institutional and non-institutional, this study contributes to deepen our understanding of the factors that drive citizens’ democratic political engagements.

Precariousness, youth and political participation: the emergence of a new political cleavage

AbstractThe article aims at disentangling the existing relation between job precariousness and political participation at the individual level illustrating that the former can be considered an emerging political cleavage. The authors apply an interpretive framework typical of political participation studies to an original data set composed of two groups of young workers (with precarious and open-ended contracts) in a big Italian post-industrial city, Turin. First, applying a confirmatory factor analysis, a typology of three ‘modes’ of political participation – voting, collective action, and political consumerism – is used to reduce data complexity. Second, logistic regressions are deployed to analyze the role played by occupational status, political positioning, and the interaction between the two, on the different modes of political participation. Precarious youth show a higher level of political participation in representational behaviours (voting). Left-wing youth are generally more active than non-left-wing ones in non-representational behaviours (collective actions and consumerism), the impact is more pronounced for precarious young people. Thus, results demonstrate the relevance of occupational status in explaining patterns of participation and invite scholars to promote a dialogue between industrial relations and political participation studies.

Toward a Militant Ethnography of Infrastructure: Cybercartographies of Order, Scale, and Scope across the Occupy Movement

Taking networked social movements as a fieldsite, I chart how the Occupy Movement transformed as activists turned to building infrastructure as a mode of political participation. Critically, infrastructure is not simply a feature of networked social movements, but forms its core capacities. Integrating insights from militant ethnography with STS research on infrastructure studies, I illustrate how to use these methods to render visible the infrastructure of networked social movements. Because militant research projects and STS scholarship have a dual role of making knowledge about as well as knowledge for participants, examining the epistemological foundations of social movement research requires understanding the researcher’s purpose for participating and, then, operationalizing their knowledge. To illustrate this, I introduce cybercartography, a theory/methods package, for mapping organizational change in order, scale, and scope across networked social movements. As such, cybercartography bridges academic knowledge production with activists’ goals to organize action.

The Influence of Citizenship Norms and Media Use on Different Modes of Political Participation in the US

Studies demonstrate that citizenship norms and media use are important predictors of political behavior. However, it remains unclear how norms and patterns of media use influence different modes of political participation—both directly and in tandem. Here, we leverage original US survey data ( N = 2200) to clarify how people’s attitudes about what it means to be a “good citizen” inform how they participate in politics, and whether certain types of media use moderate these relationships. In contrast to previous studies, we find that actualizing norms are associated with electoral, non-electoral, and individualized modes of political participation, but dutiful norms are not. In addition, although digital and traditional media use have distinct relationships with participation, there is little moderating influence. Collectively, these findings raise questions about whether the boundaries between dutiful and actualizing norms—and electoral and non-electoral participation, respectively—are still relevant in the contemporary media environment.

War experiences, economic grievances, and political participation in postwar societies: An empirical analysis of Kosovo

This article contributes to the debate evolving around the political legacy of armed conflict. We evaluate the effect of war experiences during the 1998–1999 civil war in Kosovo on various modes of political participation. We find that war victims are on average more likely to participate in non-institutionalized forms of participation such as signing petitions and to participate in protests in the postwar era. In addition, we show that the impact of war experiences on political protest is contingent upon the postwar situation. War experiences are linked to protest behavior when a survivor is economically disadvantaged after the war. However, war experiences lose their impact on protest behavior when people do not encounter economic grievances in the postwar environment. In this vein, exploring the postwar context enriches our understanding of the political legacy of war victimization.

Internet activism transforming street politics: South Korea’s 2008 ‘Mad Cow’ protests and new democratic sensibilities

This article examines South Korea’s Internet-born ‘candlelight festivals’ of 2008, with a focus on online movement transforming protesters’ communicative patterns and sensibilities in the street. When the government resumed importation of US beef despite widespread concern about mad cow disease, Korea’s young Internet users criticized the government and mobilized for street protests. In the resulting protests, the festive crowd directly spoke back to authority with irreverent humor and carnivalesque defiance. This novel mode of political participation indicates new democratic sensibilities liberated from authoritarian preconceptions and limits that had dominated Korean politics. The transformation of protest modalities observed in Korea – a nation that has experienced the maturation of Internet activism – suggests that scholars should pay attention to how Internet users traverse online and offline spaces, and to how online politics reshapes local actors’ broader political experiences and expectations.

The Marketization of Tax Sovereignty

States are traditionally conceived of as powerful sovereigns with the capacity to make and enforce mandatory rules, impose taxes, and set redistribution. Accordingly, many policy decisions (tax policy included) are considered the domain of national sovereigns. From the traditional perspective, then, we envision a state ruled by a sovereign that is entrusted — through a political process — with exclusive tax legislative powers, aiming (at least ideally) to maximize welfare (efficiency) and justly (re)distribute it while reinforcing the underlying normative values shared by its constituents. Such a sovereign has the power and — assuming it treats its constituents justly — legitimacy to so govern. Globalization is significantly transforming the nature of sovereignty. In this era, the conventionally-envisioned all-powerful sovereign is but one of two-hundred or more such sovereigns that compete with one another. Competition is increasingly turning states into market players that offer their goods and services to potential “customers.” In this market for sovereign goods, these states vie for capital and residents, while (at least some) taxpayers “shop around” for sovereign-provided privileges, public goods, and social and cultural goods. MNEs in particular notoriously shop around for sovereign goods and pay as little in taxes as possible. This competition seems to permeate into the very nature of tax sovereignty, altering the traditional role played by the sovereign. It impacts the kinds and quantities of public goods and privileges offered by the state to its constituents; it affects the underlying meanings and values of the sovereign-subject interaction; and it transforms modes of political participation and schemes of distribution.

How do Civic Associations Foster Political Participation? The Role of Scope and Intensity of Organizational Involvement

Abstract This paper investigates factors associated with individuals’ decisions in engaging in various modes of political participation, including voting, formal and informal political activities. Two aspects of civic association involvement are highlighted: scope and intensity. Using data from the U.S. Citizenship, Involvement, and Democracy Survey in 2006, we find that one’s memberships in civic associations only explain one’s participation in formal political activities, but the intensity of involvement, measured by the number of activities one performs at one’s most active voluntary association, is positively associated with both formal and informal participation modes. Neither the scope nor the intensity explains voting behavior. The study suggests ways to promote the development of civic associations and enhance democracy.

Interregionalism in Transnational Interest Networks: Euro-Asian Civil Society and the EU–ASEAN Free Trade Agreement

The study of interest groups is still a relatively small field of political science. The process of globalization has brought about the evolution of interest networks from national organizations to regional and transnational networks. This article uses the modes of political participation framework created by Jayasuriya and Rodan, in order to study the created spaces used by public interest networks at an interregional level. The empirical case study relates to Asia-Europe Meeting: the Europe-Asian interregional institution, and the work of public interest networks stemming from the civil society organizations that shadow it in opposing the EU–Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade agreement (FTA). We find that the ‘modes of political participation’ model explains quite accurately the political spaces created by civil society in the EU–ASEAN FTA. We extend the framework by adding a fifth space, lobbying, which appears out of isomorphism. This concept represents the adoption by organizations of practices carried by other institutions they interact with. In this case, public interest networks have adopted the practice of directly influencing policy-makers that was the prerogative of private interest groups.

Explaining Protest in the Aftermath of the Great Recession in Europe: The Relevance of Different Economic Indicators

The European economic crisis has brought economic hardship and prolonged instability to many countries in the European Union. While economies are struggling to recover, citizens have opted to become more vocal unconventionally. Mass protest, public occupations and demonstrations have dominated Europe. Yet, numbers of people choosing to protest need to be assessed to verify whether the economic recession is indeed responsible for a surge in protest activism on the continent. With the use of multiple rounds from the European Social Survey (2006-2012), this article tests the hypothesis linking unconventional political behavior in Europe to the economy. Findings suggest that overall European protest levels are not higher after the crisis, although confrontational activism has spiked in few countries. Economic variables retain instead an important role in the explanation of protest in the post-recession era, with both objective and subjective economic measures supporting a grievance theory explanation of why Europeans protest. Economic decline matters in the selection of protest as a mode of political participation.

Vote, party, or protest: The influence of confidence in political institutions on various modes of political participation in Europe

Although the study of the relationship between political confidence and political participation has produced contradictory results thus far, it has established, nevertheless, that this relationship depends on the exact nature of the participation: voting, party engagement and protesting. On the basis of these findings, to further specify the nature of this relationship, we make a second distinction between confidence in representative and implementing institutions. We assume that context matters, so our multi-level approach includes individual level data from the 1999 to 2001 and 2008 to 2010 waves of the European Values Study (EVS), as well as national-level data. Our results show that different types of confidence in institutions have unique effects on these three modes of participation and that these findings hold over the last decade. While confidence in parliament is the key to the elite-driven modes of participation, grassroots-driven modes are triggered by a lack of confidence in the implementing institutions.