Which of the following statements about socioeconomic status and political participation is true?

Abstract

Political participation refers to voluntary activities undertaken by the mass public to influence public policy, either directly or by affecting the selection of persons who make policies. Examples of these activities include voting in elections, helping a political campaign, donating money to a candidate or cause, contacting officials, petitioning, protesting, and working with other people on issues. Particular activities cluster into modes of participation. Substantial cross-national data have shown that wealthier and better-educated people participate at higher rates than the less advantaged, although this relationship is weaker in countries where strong parties or other political organizations provide alternative resources. Research associated with the Civic Voluntarism Model (CVM) has documented that people transfer to political activity skills which they acquire in organizations. The CVM and other recent studies have also demonstrated that people participate more in response to recruitment or mobilization. (Both terms refer to efforts by one person to increase the activity of another.) The Political Action project has shown that people have expanded their ‘political action repertory’ to encompass both protest and conventional participation. The patterns of participation in authoritarian regimes and in economically less-developed countries raise other issues but substantially follow these broad outlines.

Political Representation

Political participation and recognition is a basic platform for gender equality. In democratic countries, women have achieved formal equality with men in many areas. They have attained the right to vote, to stand in elections, and to compete for political office. However, women remain vastly underrepresented in local and national assemblies. Female heads of government are still a great rarity, and in 2005 only in two countries throughout the world did women make up half of a national cabinet (Sweden and Spain).

A liberal critique of the underrepresentation of women in government insists that the expansion of numbers of women into the higher echelons of political power is an equal opportunity issue. The history of exclusion of women from political power appears as the same sort of problem as the barriers encountered by women as they seek career advancement in the arenas of corporate power. A liberal critique of sexism resists all attempts to view the problem of underrepresentation in terms other than an equal employment issue. Traditionally, liberalism has insisted that the processes of political decision making must maintain a relative autonomy with respect to sectarian, private interests. Political decision making is seen to be properly a matter for the exercise of impartial judgment steered by a view to the general interests of the nation-state as a whole. Hence, for classical liberalism, the person of the political representative ought, from the standpoint of the constituent, to be considered immaterial.

Against this liberal construction of the problem of underrepresentation, conceived as an equal opportunity issue, there has been a growing trend to view the problem more broadly as matter of concern for the well-being and vigor of liberal democratic institutions. The interests of women, it is argued, have been neglected and overlooked by political institutions in which major decision-making functions have been monopolized by men. On this view, the domination of political decision-making processes by men is seen to have itself promoted a systematic betrayal of the responsibility of government to exercise its authority on behalf of the well-being of the community as a whole. In particular, it is argued that a history of male-dominated government has skewed the definition of those issues deemed politically relevant in narrow, sectarian terms – in terms seen to reflect the acquired priorities and perspectives of a certain class of privileged men.

The twentieth century saw a progressive shift of issues, such as housing and welfare and sexual relations, formerly deemed social questions, into the domain of politics. The climate of economic rationalism that currently grips many Western democracies has suggested to some the fragility of this only lately achieved expansion of the scope of politically relevant concerns. Women, it is argued, have a specific, vested interest in actively seeking to arrest this return to a narrow conception of the political. Seen as particular beneficiaries of a broader conception of politically relevant issues – one that assumes jurisdiction over formerly ‘social questions’ (women have, for example, benefited from the introduction of legislation designed to outlaw violence in marriage) – women appear as central stakeholders in those vigorous struggles underway in many liberal democratic countries over the question of the character and the scope of politics.

The underrepresentation of women in parliament has been perceived not merely in terms of a problem of equal opportunity and not simply in terms of the supposed peculiar investments of women in protecting a broad conception of the scope of politics; a case has also been made that women might change for the better the culture of political decision-making processes. The argument here is that although the inclusion of individual women into government may have no evident impact on the culture of politics, a recruitment of women into processes of political decision making in sufficient numbers may succeed in bringing about substantial change in the conduct of political decision-making processes. The hope is that women, as a group, might bring a different style of argumentation to the political process – a style that is less combative, more receptive to the force of the better argument, and less influenced by the claims of personal interests. Several major parties within liberal democratic countries (including the federal Australian Labour Party, the British Labour Party, and the Swedish Social Democrats) have introduced quota systems designed to help redress the gender imbalance in the elected representatives in their national assemblies.

The (Un)Virtuous Circle? Reciprocal Relationships and Political Efficacy

The disentanglement of the relationship between political participation and political efficacy is a complex exercise, as reciprocal effects exist between the two. In contrast to early findings suggesting levels of political efficacy develop early in adulthood and remain stable over time (cf Iyengar, 1980), elections and other political activities are found to influence efficacy levels, regardless of whether citizens are actually participating in such events (cf Clarke and Acock, 1989). The analysis of panel data from the United States and West Germany in the 1970s demonstrates that campaign activity and external political efficacy have a reciprocal relationship. Finkel's (1985, 1987) analysis of these data concludes that those who partake in high intensity political participation may grow to become more involved over time. Building on the work of Thompson (1970: 66), he notes that those active in campaigns become more confident in their own internal political efficacy which leads people to look for additional avenues of involvement in the political process (see also Finkel et al., 2000). In contrast, those protesting or embroiled in illegal political activity see their levels of political alienation grow, which can reduce their external political efficacy. This may further divide activists into two camps, those supportive of the system and those disaffected.

In his analysis of panel data, Finkel (1985, 1987) did not find that voting increased political efficacy but subsequent work establishes that external political efficacy does increase among the subgroup that backs winning candidates. For example, Pattie et al. (2004) find that British respondents who back the Labour Party during the late 1990s and in their 2001 re-election efforts see their political efficacy levels grow. Hence, efficacy may increase not just as a function of political participation but as a result of what Leighley (1991: 199) notes is the “perceived success of such activity” (see also Clarke and Acock, 1989; Clarke and Kornberg, 1992; Valentino et al., 2009).

Campaigns can also raise efficacy levels by paying attention to voters. Those with a history of voting and high levels of political interest are likely to engage with campaigns. Banducci and Karp (2003) find that Americans who report being contacted by a candidate or party during a campaign display higher levels of political efficacy. Some work argues that ballot initiative campaigns engage voters and may improve levels of efficacy as they are a direct way for citizens to have input into the lawmaking or constitutional design of the political system (Mendelsohn and Cutler, 2000). The number of initiatives on a ballot in an American state at a given time is also linked to improved efficacy levels among voters (Bowler and Donovan, 2002). However, Dyck and Lascher's (2009) replication of these results using more sophisticated statistical techniques cast doubt on early findings.

Reciprocal models linking efficacy to a wider variety of forms of political participation include those employed by Stenner-Day and Fischle (1992) on data from Australia and Gastil and Xenos (2010), who look at a three-wave panel study of Americans in the Pacific Northwest and uncover relationships between political efficacy and a wider range of political activities that go in both directions. The latter authors find internal, not external, efficacy is a key driver of political action other than voting, but this relationship is not reciprocated. Media use does not predict internal efficacy but the citizens' engagement with news did enhance internal efficacy. Stenner-Day and Fischle (1992) examine the reciprocal relationships between efficacy and partisan and community activism and political extremism and find considerable feedback between perceived effectiveness, perceptions of the degree to which government listens to citizens and these three forms of political and civic engagement.

The American National Election Studies

ANES is a collaborative project producing data on voting and political participation in the United States. Warren E. Miller (1994: pp. 249–250) points out in his recapitulation of the history of ANES that the outcome of the 1948 presidential election resulted in “a public embarrassment to the national community of public opinion pollsters” (because of their falsely picking Dewey as the winner). The successful Michigan study correctly predicting the outcome of that election gained remarkable public and scholarly visibility, resulting in a grant to the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) which in turn commissioned the SRC to also conduct a study of the 1952 presidential election. With the intellectual success of this study (Campbell et al., 1954), the ground was prepared for a continuous series of Michigan-based election studies which finally were transferred into the format of the national political science research resource of the ANES (Miller, 1994: pp. 260–262) funded by the National Science Foundation since 1977.

Civic Engagement

Tied to the issue of segregation and social exclusion are democratic and political participation and civic engagement. In many countries, housing segmented by income has been linked to a bifurcated involvement of people in shaping the policies, institutions, and organisations that affect what rights, opportunities, and resources are available. With few exceptions, the pattern in developed countries is fairly consistent with higher rates of participation, whether by voting or voice, coming from the middle-class and higher-income neighbourhoods. While housing affordability itself does not determine how someone votes, the distribution of it can affect what issues the majority of voters care about. In the United States and some European countries, political participation has become more suburbanised and even exurban, while it has remained relatively urbanised in other countries where the majority of middle- and higher-income families remain in large city centres. In turn, this may, for example, mean more political support for expanding roads in some countries, while others will support public transport.

5.2 Collective Action

When we shift our attention from voting as the basic level of political participation to more involved forms of participation, such as demonstrations, sit-ins, or strikes, finding satisfactory explanations of why people get involved in such actions becomes even more challenging. On the one hand, the cost of similar actions may be very high for the individual, in terms of time, money, and energy spent in participation, but also, in extreme cases, in terms of stigmatization or physical damage suffered because of participation. On the other hand, possible benefits deriving from the success of collective action may be enjoyed just as much by people who did not actively participate in that action, which may be one further reason to not undertake the risk of participation. In his article “Collective Action,” Bert Klandermans deals with this issue in detail, focusing on three main motivations that lead people to get involved in collective action: instrumentality, identity, and ideology. Klandermans also offers an articulate definition of collective action, distinguishing it from other types of group actions. Finally, he analyzes a number of factors that play a role in transforming potential participation into actual participation.

Unanswered Questions and Issues for Debate

Some important questions remain unanswered. For example, the emergence of political participation – as an alternative to traditional in liberal democracies – is often treated both as an essential element for modernization and as its critical consequence. To assume the mantle of government and to perpetuate the values of parliamentary democracy, strong parliamentary institutions are necessary if modern political parties are to perform their roles. This is true even in countries such as the United States – and many others in Africa and Latin America – in which the presidency is a strong and ‘personalized’ institution. This applies even in cases where presidents are elected by direct vote and are endowed with special powers, as occurs in France and Portugal.

Although much is known with respect to the details of the emergence of specific party systems, the capacity to generalize as to the reasons why different types of parties emerge in the ways and forms in which they have done so remains incipient. There are few works that examine or seek to explain the vast variety of different contexts, and comparative studies among regions with different levels of development are rare. In the 1980s, the political development of multinational regional institutions – which initially had a solely economic focus – such as the European Economic Community, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and (in the 1990s) MercadoComum do Sul (MERCOSUL), has unveiled a whole new field for research into the political life of such institutions, their relations with member states, and the entire theme of supranational integration. From a historical research perspective, only now are the first comparative studies of the political parties being carried out. This applies not only to research on existing parties in specific countries or groups of countries (as is the case in the European Union) but also with respect to an examination of the historical roots of contemporary political parties.

Not only parties but also party systems can be analyzed from the institutional standpoint. Both the parties and the party systems of the 1970s were little different from those of the 1920s. With the exception of the ecological movement, the majority of the party groupings, i.e., similar parties, can be presented according to their similarities. Practically all the present parties – of the left, of the right, and of the center; liberal; and revolutionary parties – consolidated themselves in the 1920s, and some much earlier. Political parties are present at the heart of all activities of the state in liberal democracies. However, even under communist regimes the role of the political party is performed in a well-established manner. In the 1990s, however, it could not safely be predicted that political parties would face a future with development and prestige, similar to that they enjoyed in the recent past. At the present time, a new type of political culture is emerging. Political awareness and politics – as subject for discussion – open up a new avenue of research into general participation in political life on the threshold of the twenty-first century. Culture may help in understanding as to why certain social cleavages are successfully transposed by a stable party system, whereas others are not. Political culture and the manner in which it is created are responsible for some significant differences in the traditional organization of states, or of bodies associated with them. Political culture includes not only ideals, such as values, beliefs, and attitudes, but also political practices and societal behavior.

There are certain themes in the study of political parties that still require further research from a historical point of view. At the present time, issues on gender representation, minorities' rights through political representation, religious militancy in politics, and reevaluation of subnational or national claims within historically centralized states won on importance and political relevance. Therefore, the question of the balance in the use of political power and the politics of containment became recurrent themes in political science and in history as well. One of the most important contentions of political activity is the institutional framework of the state. Contemporary political and historical research has made clear the importance of institutional factors in political life. Aside from this new institutional focus, the study of political parties has demonstrated a renewed appreciation of history, of events, of the rule, and of political regimes as the active forces of political life. It is perhaps commonplace to state that ‘history matters.’ The ‘frozen cleavages’ of Lipset and Rokkan, the development models of communism, fascism and the parliamentary democracy of Moore (1968a), and the theories of ‘critical realignment’ of Burnham (1970) are good examples of historical reviews and models. The legacy of history is thus one of the limitations to which institutionalism is subject.

Socioeconomic constraints are generally accepted without going into the mythical and overworked concepts that have been served up since the time of Marx. Rapid changes in international finances and economic scenarios have produced intriguing works. The exercise of social power is also constrained by cognitive means, in the use of pure reason (and more specifically, of the practical one). The knowledge society and information society will have to take into consideration nonrational features of political life, and the social and ideological factors that influence the belief systems of the masses (Meny, 1989). The final two decades of the twentieth century witnessed a swift retreat in the positivist distinction between fact and value. Specialists recognized that political agents were also ethical players (Rawls, 1993), who have their own values and act in accordance with them, and that occasionally they may be persuaded (by political philosophers, perhaps) to adopt other, better values. Any attempt to divorce facts and values from the mental processes and from the underlying political dynamics would be doomed to failure. Similarly, political science increasingly seeks to develop studies that take into account the complexity of the structures, processes, and results that it investigates. In order to do this, one must have a theoretical framework within which the history of the processes and the prevailing political philosophy must occupy a space that formally would have drawn opposition from previous generations.

Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand

The Constitution BE 2540 (1997) has greatly increased the rights of Thai people to political participation and to voice public opinion on major problems. Relating to education, Section 81 of the constitution required that the state:

Provide education to attain knowledge and morality; issue laws relating to national education; improve education so as to be attuned to economic and social change; create and strengthen knowledge and inculcate sound awareness of politics and a democratic system of government under a constitutional monarchy; promote research in various disciplines; accelerate the application of science and technology for national development; promote the teaching profession; and encourage the revival of local wisdom, art and culture of the nation.

Improving education to be in harmony with economic and social change means that the government is committed to initiate educational reform whenever it is necessary to keep up with the pace of change. Besides, it is provided in the constitution, for the first time, that all Thai people will have an equal right to receive basic education, for at least 12 years, of good quality and free of charge (Section 43). The constitution ensures that all people will have both the right and duty to receive education and training (Sections 30 and 69) as well as academic freedom (Section 42). It also includes the right to receive care and education for children, youth, women, the elderly, the underprivileged, and the handicapped as provided in Sections 53, 55, and 80. These provisions will protect the right to education of all Thai people, thereby moving forward toward a knowledge-based economy and society.

In providing education, maximum public benefit in national communication resources (Section 40) and the conservation and restoration of local wisdom (Section 46) will be taken into consideration. The role of the private sector in the provision of education at all levels is also emphasized (Section 43). It ensures the right of local organizations to participate in the provision of education which will promote the decentralization of educational management (Section 289). Furthermore, participation of local people and communities in educational provision will be enhanced, which will make education both relevant to the needs of the people and responsive to changing environments, demands, and opportunities at a local level.

These challenging guidelines mandated by the 1997 Constitution have been assured in Thailand's 2007 Constitution, which has just been promulgated in August. Education rights and liberties are assured in this latest constitution. It emphasizes that a person shall enjoy an equal right to receive basic education for the duration of not less than 12 years which shall be provided by the state thoroughly, up to the quality, and without charge. Indigent, disabled, and handicapped persons are eligible for assistance and support from the state to enjoy equal education opportunities. Moreover, education and vocational training provided by private organizations, educational alternatives, self-education, and education for life shall be protected and promoted by the state (Section 48). As for academic freedom, it states that education, training, learning, teaching, researching, and disseminating such research according to academic principles shall be protected, provided that it is not contrary to his/her civic duties or good morals (Section 49).

Electronic democracy is the term coined to describe the use of new technologies of communication to enhance political participation and the exchange of political information. While electronic democracy has been advocated and experimented with since the early 1980s, the advent of the Internet has intensified the discussion of, and interest in, the topic. For some, electronic democracy represents a chance to revive the flagging fortunes of liberal democracy by increasing the opportunity for political participation and the dissemination of political information. For others, it represents a chance to recover the ancient Athenian ideal of direct democracy in which an electronic agora of chat-rooms replaces the public space of old. For yet others, electronic democracy entails not the enhancement of democracy (in either guise), but its demise in populist consumerism and state manipulation as political choice is reduced to a registering of instant preferences and the political system expands its capacity for surveillance and manipulation. Whatever position is adopted, it is clear that the debate about electronic democracy, though dealing with new technical possibilities, echoes an age-old debate about the virtues and vices of democracy.

2.3 Political Consequences

To gauge the political consequences of CV, most scholars start by noting the near universal connection between political participation and socioeconomic status. Noting that ‘low voter turnout means unequal and socioeconomically biased turnout’ (Lijphart 1997, p. 2), many scholars see CV as going a long way to removing this ‘bias.’ Comparative studies of turnout note that the relationship between socioeconomic status and voter turnout weakens as turnout increases (e.g., Powell 1986). Thus to the extent that CV generates higher voter turnout (and the research summarized in the previous sections suggests strongly that it does), CV also removes socioeconomic differences in electoral participation. Quite simply, when almost everyone votes, there can be no socioeconomic ‘biases’ in turnout.

It also follows that the high turnout rates engendered by CV also have partisan and ideological implications. Since support for parties of the left is correlated with socioeconomic status (notwithstanding a lengthy debate about a decline in ‘class voting’), as socioeconomic based differentials in turnout diminish, support for parties of the left increases (Pacek and Radcliff 1995, Nagel 1988, McAllister and Mughan 1986). In turn, increased support for parties of the left results in higher welfare spending and more state interventions in the macroeconomy and labor markets (Hicks and Swank 1992, Castles and McKinlay 1979). Again, to the extent that CV increases turnout, and turnout increases support for left parties and their policy agendas, then CV can be shown to have policy implications. Put simply, CV helps mobilize voters who would otherwise abstain, generating a distribution of voters' policy preferences further to the left than would otherwise result, and so party competition takes place over an interval of the ideological spectrum shifted to the left from where it would otherwise be. CV is thus causally quite remote from outcomes such as left-party success or particular policy outcomes. Indeed, this causal link could even be reversed: i.e., it is only in countries with commitments to social democratic outcomes that CV is adopted, and in fact, this accords with the pattern of adoption of CV among Western democracies in the early twentieth century.