Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of charts and maps
- List of tables
- Preface
- Part I Theories and methods
- Part II Patterns and pathways
- 3 Patterns of political participation
- 4 Individual resources
- 5 Group resources
- 6 Economic location
- 7 Personal factors
- 8 Political outlooks
- 9 Party and values
- 10 Who are the political activists?
- Part III Issues and actions
- Part IV The local process
- Part V Conclusions
- Appendix A Survey methods
- Appendix B Measuring elite-citizen concurrence
- Appendix C The National Questionnaire
- Endnotes
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Patterns of political participation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of charts and maps
- List of tables
- Preface
- Part I Theories and methods
- Part II Patterns and pathways
- 3 Patterns of political participation
- 4 Individual resources
- 5 Group resources
- 6 Economic location
- 7 Personal factors
- 8 Political outlooks
- 9 Party and values
- 10 Who are the political activists?
- Part III Issues and actions
- Part IV The local process
- Part V Conclusions
- Appendix A Survey methods
- Appendix B Measuring elite-citizen concurrence
- Appendix C The National Questionnaire
- Endnotes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In order to understand the role of political participation in a liberal democracy, one must first describe it. For it is in specifying the particular building blocks, the various activities making up what we term political participation, that answers begin to emerge about the complex ways in which it fits into the wider democratic order (see Parry 1972:3–17). In other words, the initial task to be tackled is to identify and lay out the basic ‘cartography’ of political action in Britain. How many continents and how far apart are they? Where are the mountains and how high? Where are the valleys and how deep? These are the central tasks of this chapter.
The indicators of political participation
As we have seen in chapter 1, our understanding of political participation is set deliberately broad to try to capture a fair representation of the numerous ways in which ordinary citizens seek to influence the policy-making process, be it local, national or even international. If the concept is to retain its sharpness and concreteness, it must refer to forms of action. That is, participation, as we conceive the term, is about citizens doing things (compare in a very different political environment, Burns 1988:9–11). Thus, it should not encompass elements pertaining to political interest or civic duty or the citizen's sense of his or her potential effectiveness in influencing policy-making. These factors certainly help one to understand why some participate whilst others do not, but they must not be confused with the action itself – as has sometimes been the case (see, for example, Inglehart 1981).
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- Political Participation and Democracy in Britain , pp. 39 - 62Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992
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