Unconventional Political Participation Research Articles

Negotiating civic identity across different political contexts: Immigrant participation in social movements and political incorporation

AbstractThis article examines the understudied intersection between migration and contentious politics, focusing specifically on immigrant participation in social movements within their host societies. Drawing upon data from the Anti‐Extradition Law Amendment Bill (Anti‐ELAB) Movement in Hong Kong, it illuminates the process through which Chinese immigrants become politicized, evolve collective identities, and mobilize against civil dominance. Further, it underscores the transformative potential of social movements in facilitating immigrant political incorporation. However, it also recognizes the unilateral acceptance determined by mainstream society, which often leaves immigrants sidelined in discussions regarding their qualifications for unconventional political participation. To address civil inequality, immigrants establish their civil identities, challenge dominance, and amass political capital for future incorporation. This study extends the migration and social movements literature by shedding light on the political dynamics of immigrant participation and the hurdles they encounter during their journey toward political incorporation. It also underscores the significant role of progressive social movements in fostering immigrant political participation. Furthermore, the research highlights the unique immigrant political identity that emerges and evolves through participation in social movements, contesting exclusion and monopolistic dominance over democratic realization.

Who can you blame? Trust in institutions and mobilization across regimes in Asia

In this article, we consider the attitudinal motivations for political participation in countries across Asia. Specifically, we assess how trust in different types of institutional actors provides incentives for extra-legal actions, such as protest and the use of force, by analyzing the behaviors of individuals based upon their evaluations of representational and implementing institutions. As part of this analysis, we consider attitudes and action in both democracies and non-democracies, arguing for separate mechanisms to motivate unconventional political participation. Using Asian Barometer Survey data, we find that individuals living under democratic regimes are motivated to engage in more costly forms of participation in response to their assessments of trust in elected officials, while those individuals residing in non-democracies engage in these high-risk activities when they are dissatisfied with the performance of the police, civil service, and courts.

Internet involvement, information consumption, and political participation in urban China

The issue of whether the internet promotes political participation has always been a hotly debated topic in academia. However, current research lacks an effective classification of the modes of internet use, and it does not analyze their effect on different forms of political participation. Based on data from the 2015 and 2018 waves of the China Urban Governance Survey, this study offers an examination of the internet usage behavior of Chinese urban netizens from the perspectives of internet involvement and information consumption, as well as comparing the impact that different modes of internet use have on conventional and unconventional political participation. The results of this study confirm the “citizen-empowerment hypothesis” of internet use, and show that the “group involvement–social-information-oriented” mode of internet use has a positive effect on the conventional and unconventional political participation of urban internet users. However, the study fails to support the “time-displacement hypothesis”. It shows that the “individual involvement–entertainment-oriented” mode of internet use does not have a negative impact on the conventional and unconventional political participation of Chinese urban internet users. Similarly, the “group involvement–entertainment-oriented” mode of internet use has no significant effect on unconventional political participation. Taken together, the study shows that, in general, internet use has promoted the political participation of Chinese urban netizens, but there are significant differences between the different modes of internet use. As a revolutionary medium, the internet not only provides people with a convenient way of obtaining and communicating information, but also creates more challenges for state governance. The way in which the government should deal with different forms of political participation in the internet age will be an important research topic in the future.

Choosing from the citizens’ toolbox: disability activists as political candidates in Indonesia’s 2019 general elections

In this paper, we explore the interaction between unconventional and conventional political participation of electoral candidates with disability who competed in Indonesia’s 2019 general elections. Interviews with electoral candidates highlight that their reasons for entering the electoral race, and strategies adopted over the course of their campaigns, were shaped by their prior involvement in the disability rights movement. This connection between activism and electoral engagement demonstrates how the disability rights movement shaped political candidates’ selection and use of political participation tools. The significance of these findings has bearing for others seeking to understand the political behaviour of people with disability. In particular, it illustrates that community building based on unconventional political participation can positively influence the participation of people with disability in conventional politics despite ongoing challenges posed by accessibility, public perceptions of disability, and access to resources. Points of interest The 2019 election was the first national legislative election to be held after Indonesia’s new disability law was passed in 2016, and many more people with a disability competed than in it compared to previous elections. Most candidates who ran did not have any previous experience running for public office, but the majority did have experience with disability activism. Candidates were motivated to run for office to build on the previous successes of the disability movement, to make sure people with disability had a voice within parliament and to use the electoral campaign to raise awareness about disability rights within the community. Candidates with a disability struggled with physical accessibility, social stigma, and costs during campaigning. Ultimately, it was the skills, networks and resources that candidates previously acquired through their links with the disability movement that helped them to negotiate these limitations.

Are politically engaged citizens more democratic? A glimpse from Brazil

A significant part of the Western literature on democracy assumes that political participation leads to citizens being more committed to democratic values. However, we do not know to what extent this is true in young democracies with an authoritarian tradition. Hence, this article aims to examine whether politically engaged Brazilians are more democratic. To do so, we analyzed whether there is any association between political participation, support for democracy, and democracy relativization through multivariate regression models. Our database comprises a representative sample of 2417 interviews with the electorate of São Paulo in 2019. The results show a statistically significant association between unconventional political participation and support for democracy. General political participation is associated with non-relativization of democracy only, showing a limited relationship between support for democracy and participation. Other variables, such as political interest, political knowledge, and interpersonal trust, are also associated with higher support for democracy.

Unto Caesar it is Rendered: Religiosity’s Effect on Unconventional Political Participation

Unto Caesar it is Rendered: Religiosity’s Effect on Unconventional Political Participation

Rethinking Modes of Political Participation

Political participation is frequently defined as either being conventional or unconventional. This distinction is based on dualistic thinking. Participation is likened to other dualisms, such as legal–illegal, collective–individual, and unity–plurality. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s system theory, I argue that understanding political participation in terms of dualisms is reductive, as it overlooks those acts of participation that do not fit the conventional–unconventional distinction. To address this issue, the article introduces the notion of alternative political participation. This category is established by conceiving the existing dualism between conventional and unconventional political participation as a continuum of options existing between polar opposites.

Everyday interactions and political participation of Malaysian youth

ABSTRACT Some scholars have argued that youth apathy in politics arises from an interpretation based on conventional electoral politics. Other scholars have studied unconventional political participation and found the willingness of youth to sign petitions, join boycotts, and attend demonstrations. However, little is known about the potential of everyday interactions to generate youth interest in politics. This study examined youth participation in politics, including everyday interactions, before the 14th general election in Malaysia which changed the ruling government after six decades. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 participants aged 15–40 from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Analysis revealed low levels of political participation in electoral politics. Less than half of them voted in campus elections, and state or parliamentary elections, or attended campaign rallies. None of them were candidates in campus elections, and none of their immediate family members were political candidates. A majority of the participants were engaged in everyday interactions through online news, occasional political conversations with friends, teachers, lecturers and parents, membership in organisations, and writing letters to government agencies. The findings suggest that youth disengagement from politics is due to a closed political climate, and the perception of politics as dirty and for the self-gain of politicians.

How the Internet has changed participation: Exploring distinctive preconditions of online activism

The continuously growing number of people participating in Internet-based, online, political activism suggests that the latter has the potential to replace offline forms of unconventional political participation in the future. If that is the case, it is essential to understand the nature and objectives of such type of participation. This article addresses the question of distinctive preconditions of online activism. As a result of the mixed-effect logistic regression analysis of the European Social Survey data, it was found that online activism contrasts with other unconventional types of political participation in respect to the effect of social trust. It is suggested that the key differences between the preconditions of online and offline forms of participation may speak in favour of several phenomena. First of all, it is proposed that social networking services (SNSs) managed to create an illusion of directness of political participation. Secondly, new groups of people with the lower risk preferences may be recruited into online political action. Lastly, groups that do not believe in the effectiveness of political participation or that have other motives, such as a search for attention, may be more likely to participate online. The results call for further research on how SNSs reshape how people understand political engagement and how they want to be involved.

Age group differences in political activism in Malaysia

ABSTRACT There is a dearth of studies on age-related patterns of political activism in Malaysia, specifically on young people’s patterns of political participation relative to their elders, and in relation to the rich literature that has developed in Western democracies. By analysing survey data from Wave 6 (2010–2014) of the World Values Surveys (WVS), this study aims to investigate the differences in political engagement between younger and older people in Malaysia, including new repertoires outside the mainstream politics, by addressing the question of whether young Malaysians are more active in political activities compared to older groups. The findings conform to the expected patterns in the literature that young people are less likely to participate in conventional political activities than their respective elders. However, we find no significant differences for unconventional political participation. The study further shows that demographic indicators such as the levels of education, gender and ethnic group belonging do not appear to be linked to the age gap between youth and their elders in political activism. As such, the study provides evidence that young people in Malaysia are less likely to be politically active than their elders and that this is not clearly attributable to the socio-demographic factors analysed.

ESTATISMO, EMANCIPACIÓN Y LA IZQUIERDA: ENTENDER LA PARTICIPACIÓN POLÍTICA NO CONVENCIONAL EN COSTA RICA

Ideology has been traditionally considered to be an explanation of political behavior, both inside and outside academia, which has been nowadays mostly abandoned. This paper sets out to investigate if a relationship between ideology and unconventional political participation exists, for the Costa Rican elections of 2014. It yields results that indicate that while the majority of Costa Ricans do not engage in political participation, there is a minority that does, with an identifiable emancipatory, statist and leftist ideology. A strong contradiction is found in the population between their ideological self-identification and their values and attitudes. The paper then argues in favor of more nuanced measurements of ideology than self-identification questions. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that each form of participation has a different relationship with the ideological elements.Therefore, studying them as if they were one should be avoided.

비관습적 정치참여는 투표참여를 대체하는가, 보완하는가?

비관습적 정치참여는 투표참여를 대체하는가, 보완하는가?

Chile 2010: la desafección política y su impacto en la participación política convencional y no convencional

The decrease of political participation in Chile since the early 90s lead to a discussion about political disaffection in the beginning of the new century. To what extent does political disaffection affect the decrease in political participation? Previous studies on this subject have been theoretical and descriptive and have only linked disaffection to the electoral participation. This study argues that higher levels of political disaffection are associated to less conventional and unconventional political participation. To demonstrate this the Auditoría a la Democracia (2010) survey is used to perform statistical analyzes of political disaffection on different types of political behavior. Results show that political disaffection is a compound and internally coherent concept, consisting of attitudes of distrust towards political actors and institutions, no interest in politics, internal and external inefficacy, and democracy dissatisfaction. Regression analyses, using participation rates as a dependent variable, also conclude that disaffection has a negative effect on both dimensions of political participation.

La movilización cognitiva y la dinámica de la participación política entre los migrantes intraeuropeos

La participación política no convencional se ha extendido intensamente debido al cambio cultural y social, favoreciendo el proceso de desinstitucionalización de la política. Para comprobar si existe un vínculo entre esta difusión de la participación no convencional y la movilidad de los europeos que viven en otros países europeos, hemos explorado los datos recopilados por el proyecto europeo MOVEACT, incluyendo los datos sobre el comportamiento político de los "viejos europeos" (Británicos y alemanes), y de los "nuevos europeos” (polacos y rumanos), todos ellos residentes en Grecia, Francia, Italia y España. Nuestro análisis ha confirmado que hay una pluralidad de variables que intervienen en la relación entre las personas que experimentan esta movilidad internacional europea (“EU movers”) y la participación política no convencional. Existen tres dimensiones relevantes para explicar la participación política no convencional en esta movilidad interna europea: integración social, contexto situacional y características individuales. Por otro lado, se observa que el aspecto clave para entender la participación no convencional de estos “UE movers” es el grado de movilización política cognitiva. Junto a ésta aparecen otros factores como son la pertenencia a asociaciones, la socialización familiar, las expectativas de vivir en el país de residencia en el futuro o la cultura política en el país de origen.

Repertoires of political participation: Macroeconomic conditions, socioeconomic resources, and participation gaps in Europe

The European economic crisis has stimulated a great deal of research linking contextual macroeconomic conditions and political outputs, as conventional and unconventional political participation. Nevertheless, such research has often treated forms of political participation as independent from each other, overlooking how citizens can choose from combinations of political actions to influence politics in contexts with varying levels of macroeconomic performance. This article, instead, focuses on two common forms of participation – voting and protesting – and studies whether engagement in “repertoires” of participation – the “disengaged” (abstaining and not protesting), the “duty-based” (voting and not protesting), the “protest” (abstaining and protesting), and the “all-round” (voting and protesting) repertoires – varies according to countries’ macroeconomic conditions in Europe in 30 countries over time. This article also considers that the effect of macroeconomic conditions on repertoires of participation might depend on citizens’ socioeconomic resources – such as education, employment status, and income – with consequences for participation gaps or inequalities. Using multilevel models and data from seven rounds of the European Social Survey, this article shows that in contexts where macroeconomic conditions are worse, the probability of engaging in the “protest” repertoire increases, while the probability of engaging in the other three repertoires does not depend on the economy. In addition, the article finds that participation gaps narrow in the “disengaged” and “duty-based” repertoires in contexts with poorer macroeconomic performance, while the gaps in the “protest” and “all-round” repertoires do not change across contexts with different economic conditions.

How important are political interest and internal political efficacy in the prediction of political participation? Longitudinal evidence from Germany / La importancia del interés en la polític y dae la eficacia política interna en la predicción de la participación política. Datos longitudinales originados en Alemania

This study aims to disentangle the effects of interest in politics and internal political efficacy in the prediction of different political activities. The analysis examines the hypothesis that political interest is a more important precursor of electoral and unconventional political participation, and that both political interest and efficacy are required to promote participation in political parties. Using the German Longitudinal Election Study, multiple regression analyses yield that political efficacy is a strong and positive predictor of intentions to participate in party politics and unconventional political behaviour. Political interest has differential effects on voting conditional on whether respondents are surveyed before or after elections, and differential moderated effects appear for conventional and unconventional political action. The findings are discussed with respect to the importance of political interest and efficacy for citizen participation.

No naturalization, no participation?

This article assesses the effect of naturalization and inclusive citizenship regimes on immigrants’ conventional and unconventional political participation in 26 European countries. I argue that both naturalization and inclusive citizenship regimes increase immigrants’ sense of belonging to the country of residence and hence their political engagement. Using data from the European Social Survey and applying matching techniques in order to tackle endogeneity between naturalization and participation, I show that in countries with inclusive citizenship regimes the positive acquisition effect for naturalized immigrants is less pronounced than in more restrictive citizenship regimes. These results indicate that the effect of naturalization is highly dependent on the context of the citizenship regimes, a finding previously unnoticed due to the methodological challenges involved in the highly endogenous process of applying for and acquiring citizenship.

Conventional and unconventional political participation in times of financial crisis in the Netherlands, 2002–2012

In this contribution, we investigate the extent to which the recent financial crisis has affected levels of political participation in general and more particularly within privileged and underprivileged societal groups in the Netherlands. We derive competing and complementary theoretical propositions about the possible effects of the economic downturn on conventional and unconventional modes of political participation. Economic decline might mobilize people to voice their concerns in the political arena, especially via unconventional modes of political participation such as demonstrating. As privileged societal groups are more likely to participate in politics, economic decline may widen the initial differences between privileged and underprivileged societal groups in their level of political participation. We use the Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies collected before (2002–2006), at the onset of the Eurocrisis (2006–2010) and after prolonged periods of recession (2008–2012) to empirically assess these competing claims. Our results show a slight decrease in conventional modes of political participation and a slight increase in unconventional modes of political participation during the recent financial and economic crisis. We do not find that the relationship between the economic crisis and political participation changes significantly differently for privileged and underprivileged groups in the Netherlands.

Patterns of conventional and unconventional political participation in global comparison

Patterns of conventional and unconventional political participation in global comparison

The political psychology of participation in Turkey: civic engagement, basic values, political sophistication and the young

This article aims to understand the recent heightened levels of mobilization and unconventional political participation in Turkey. We use a political psychology model that highlights the impact of civic engagement, political sophistication, and values on conventional and unconventional participation. We argue that these factors will be significant predictors of unconventional participation setting it apart from conventional political behaviour, which will be driven by simpler considerations. We expect these qualitative differences in the drivers of conventional and unconventional participation to go beyond age and gender differences and highlight the complexity of political decision-making in Turkey’s electoral authoritarian system. We use the 2012 World Value Survey to test our hypotheses, with a nationally representative sample of Turkish citizens. We find significant variations in the role of values, sophistication and levels of civic engagement for conventional and unconventional participation when controlling for age, gender and left–right ideological orientations. Our findings confirm the complex considerations that drive citizens’ engagement with politics and can be useful to explaining recent political developments in Turkey involving youth, public mobilization and protests, but also mainstream voting choices.