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Civic Engagement and Mass–Elite Policy Agenda Agreement in American Communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2005

KIM QUAILE HILL  and
TETSUYA MATSUBAYASHI
KIM QUAILE HILL
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University
TETSUYA MATSUBAYASHI
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University
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Abstract

We test propositions about how different forms of civic engagement are related to democratic representation in American communities. Our data are for the samples of communities, their citizens, and their leaders originally examined by Verba and Nie in Participation in America (1972). Our analyses of those data indicate that membership in bridging social–capital civic associations is unrelated to democratic responsiveness of leaders to the mass public but that bonding social–capital membership is negatively associated with such responsiveness. We also demonstrate that bonding social–capital civic engagement weakens the democratic linkage processes inherent in elections.

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ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 99 , Issue 2 , May 2005 , pp. 215 - 224
Copyright
© 2005 by the American Political Science Association

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