What drives unconventional political participation? A two level study

There is little evidence on the factors that drive peaceful unconventional political participation. This study evaluates the impact of seven individual level constituents – age, income, education, gender, satisfaction with the government, engagement in civil society organizations and voting – as well as five macro-level factors – economic development, democratic experience, income inequalities, a country's regime type and federalism – on citizens’ participation in boycotts, demonstrations and petition signing activities. Participation in all three protest activities hinges on education, voting, participation in civil society organizations, and lack of satisfaction with the government. Moreover, the influence of some macro-factors, such as democratic experience and economic development, and micro-level factors, such as gender differs between the three forms of political engagement.     

政治信任、社会网络与抗争倾向:基于53个国家和地区的实证比较

本文基于世界价值观调查数据（2010～2014年）,构建了以抗争倾向为因变量的多层次混合效应逻辑斯蒂回归模型。对53个国家和地区的7万余份样本的分析表明,影响个体抗争倾向的因素同时存在于微观与宏观两个层次。在微观层次,相较于政治信任,个体的社会网络对抗争倾向的影响程度更高,说明相较于社会心理学视角下的集体行为理论,组织社会学视角下的资源动员理论具有更强的解释力。在宏观层次,相较于威权政体,民主政体下的个体更倾向于诉诸抗争行为。具体而言,威权政体下,强社会网络、低政治信任的个体抗争倾向最高;民主政体下,强社会网络、高政治信任的个体抗争倾向最高。这说明微观层次的因素对抗争倾向的影响受到政体类型的干预。     

自我组织与遵纪守法：工人依法维权的集体行动策略——以上海SNS企业工人抗争为例

在中国的制度环境下,对于底层工人来说,争取合法权益的同时还要计算在这个过程中的经济成本与政治风险,因此“安全”、“有效”而又“可持续存在”的抗争方式是工人在采取行动时不得不考虑的问题。本文以上海某制造企业工人两次依法维权的行动为例,提出在这种逻辑下工人抗争所采取的“自我组织”与“遵纪守法”的策略,既为抗争提供了组织保障,又提供了行动的合法性。最后,文章将这种抗争策略放在中国宏观社会变迁的背景下进行了讨论。     

Wired to mobilize: The effect of social networking messages on voter turnout

Recent scholarship has documented the effect of online social networking on political participation, a relationship hypothesized to be due to the generation of social capital. This paper tests the hypothesis that impersonal get-out-the-vote messages delivered via an online social network can increase voter turnout. Specifically, this study uses a field experiment of randomly assigned students from a large southern public university to test the effect of exposure to political messages via Facebook on the likelihood of them voting in the November 2010 election. The results indicate that encouragements to vote delivered through a social networking site can have substantively large effects on political behavior.     

Democracy, Voting, and Disenfranchisement in the United States: A Social Psychological Perspective

Autonomy, engagement, and equality are defining features of democracy. Each of these features illuminates the challenge or incompleteness of our democratic aspirations: Autonomy or self-governance is too easily surrendered, disengagement is evident when roughly half of eligible adults choose not to vote, and the inequality of our political voices is manifest in many ways, including a self-perpetuating relationship between socioeconomic status and political participation. In addition to introducing the present collection of articles on the social psychology of voting, I argue that several concepts drawn from psychological measurement may contribute to making elections more fair. A signal detection framework may be used to assess the soundness of election reforms, with fraud and disenfranchisement conceptualized as two forms of error. The replacement of the Electoral College by a single aggregate national popular vote would not only be more democratic but would substantially reduce the likelihood of controversial outcomes in future presidential elections.     

Exploring elites’ first political memories: A case study of presidential electors

Political elites provide a unique perspective on political socialization. By examining these individuals’ experiences and viewpoints, scholars have an opportunity to evaluate methods to increase political engagement among the mass public. This paper undertakes such an exploration using a 2013 mail survey of Electoral College members, specifically considering responses to an open-ended question about electors’ first political memories, accounting for respondents’ age, partisanship, and gender. This study finds that elites’ earliest political memories often involve electoral—particularly presidential—politics and note these findings’ implications for political socialization scholars.     

Disobedience and support for democracy: Evidences from the World Values Survey

For some time, social movement research and political science have studied protests and activists. However, little empirical research attempts to relate movements to the type of social change they endeavour to achieve. In this paper, we suggest that different psychosocial processes may distinguish between different types of movement and protest. In particular, we cross lines between classical social psychology studies on the individual–authority relationship and studies on protest and social movements. We focus attention on the psychological processes triggered in obedience/disobedience. Our results show that when disobedience is associated with attitudes of inclusiveness, it is also positively linked to prodemocratic individual attitudes and to the enhancement of democracy at institutional levels.     

Anything women can do men can do better: An experiment examining the effects of stereotype threat on political knowledge and efficacy

Negative stereotypes have been shown to create cognitive burdens that decrease intellectual performance in a number of tasks such as math and standardized tests. Applying a multidisciplinary approach and an experimental research design, this paper examines the effect of stereotype threat on political knowledge and political efficacy. A sample of 226 undergraduate students completed an online survey on political knowledge and efficacy. Participants were randomly assigned to a stereotype threat condition or a non-threat condition. Contrary to what was hypothesized, stereotype threat does not explain the political knowledge gap between men and women; men score significantly higher than women in both conditions. However, preliminary evidence suggests the presence of stereotype lift in men's sense of political efficacy. Men's political efficacy demonstrates a moderate increase in the stereotype threat condition while women's sense of efficacy does not change (d = .53).     

Protest Suicide: A Systematic Model with Heuristic Archetypes

Suicide as a form of political protest is a little studied social phenomenon that cannot be dismissed simply as being irrational or patholognomic. We consider protest suicide to be a meaningful social action as purposive political act intended to change oppressive policies or practices. This paper synthesizes theoretical propositions associated with suicide in general, and protest suicide in particular, so as to construct a general explanatory model of protest suicide as a social phenomenon. Then, it analyzes protest suicide as a meaningful social action. People considering protest suicide have to discern the logic of the situation in which such action is to take place. This involves answering two fundamental questions: Is suicide an acceptable course of social action? Is the envisaged protest suicide likely to achieve their hopes, aspirations and goals? How these questions are answered gives rise to a set of protest suicide archetypes. Our analysis generates a more sophisticated understanding of the potential reasons for, and motivations behind, protest suicide as a social phenomenon.     

The electoral consequences of alienation: Nonvoting and protest voting in the 1992 presidential race

This article focuses on the context of the 1992 national elections in order to determine why certain alienated individuals chose to stay home on election day while others responded by voting for a third party Presidential candidate. Two dimensions of alienation, internal and external political inefficacy, are linked to lower levels of voting, as is consistent with previous research on voting behavior. In addition, we find that, among those who voted, those individuals who expressed political cynicism or external inefficacy were more likely to vote for Ross Perot. We conclude that, while many alienated individuals do not vote, the Perot candidacy in 1992 led certain alienated individuals to engage in “protest” voting by casting their vote for an unlikely winner in the presidential race.     

Distance,Turnout, and the Convenience of Voting*

Objectives. This research examines how distance factors into the costs associated with political participation. We hypothesize that the political geography of a voter's residence affects not only the likelihood that he or she will vote, but whether the voter will choose between traditional Election Day voting or nontraditional means, such as casting an absentee ballot by mail, or going to an early‐voting site. Methods. Using a geographic information system (GIS), we calculate Manhattan‐block distances between voter residences and their respective precinct and nearest early‐voting sites in Clark County, NV for the 2002 mid‐term election. We then use these calculated distances to predict, with multinomial logistic regression, the likelihood of nonvoting, precinct voting, and nontraditional voting. Results. Our evidence suggests that the cost of traveling to reach a traditional voting site is associated with nonvoting to a point, but the relationship between distance and participation is nonlinear. Distance to traditional voting sites is also highly associated with choosing to vote by mail. Would‐be nonvoters are more inclined to use proximate election‐day sites than proximate early‐voting sites, probably because they decide to vote so late in the campaign. Conclusions. Our findings have important implications for democratic theory, ongoing efforts to reform the electoral process, and the practice of voter mobilization.     

英雄伦理与抗争行动的持续性——以鲁西农民抗争积极分子为例

在中国乡村抗争研究中,农民抗争的动机经常被理解为一种“受损逻辑”。虽然受损逻辑能够部分解释抗争行动的发起,但却不能解释在利益补偿、伦理关系修复的情况下,抗争为何会继续进行。本文在对鲁西农民抗争积极分子进行研究的基础上指出,推动抗争积极分子持续抗争的动机是一种由抗争行动本身带来的、突出的、不同于受损逻辑的“英雄伦理”。这种英雄伦理发展出了互助连带机制、等级区分机制和友情再造机制等三种机制,从而推动着抗争的持续进行。然而,这三种机制在推动抗争持续进行的同时,也存在着各自内在的限制。最后,笔者讨论了“英雄伦理”对于理解中国乡村抗争政治的贡献。     

Parties,Institutional Control,and Trust in Government*

Objectives. Partisanship should affect evaluations of Congress just as it affects evaluations of the president, and these institutional evaluations should affect political trust. We argue that the relationship between partisanship and trust is dependent on partisan control of Congress and that much of party identification's influence on trust occurs indirectly through approval of governmental institutions. Methods. Using data collected before and after the 2002 congressional elections by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut, we examine changes in frequency distributions and mean values for trust and institutional approval. We use multivariate regression models and a path model to estimate the causes of political trust and self‐perceived change in trust. Results. We find evidence that party control of government and party identification are important in explaining trust and institutional approval. The Republican takeover of the Senate led Republicans to evaluate the Senate more favorably and to become more trusting of the government, while having the opposite effect on Democrats. Conclusions. The changes in approval and trust resulting from the 2002 elections suggest that at least some segment of the population is cognizant of changes in the political environment and updates its views of government when the political environment changes.     

走向法庭还是走上街头：超越维权困境的一条行动路径

制度外抗争与制度内法律维权有着显著不同的结果和制度逻辑。现有文献中的“依法抗争”或“以法抗争”可以通过制度外或者制度边缘的集体行动获得政府及时的反应,但却有着多重困境：机会困境、风险困境、组织困境、制度困境。制度内法律维权可以很大程度上破解这些困境,但也有着该模式下独特的结果困境：费时费力而又缺乏即时直接的回报困扰或者阻碍制度内法律维权者去为了获得长期的有益于整个群体的普遍性制度化后果采取行动。但本研究中的业主维权行动在一定程度上破解了这一困境。他们的制度内维权行动让法律在实践中最大可能地运转了起来,从而超越了传统维权的困境。独特的政治机会结构和制度内维权本身所具有的特征,促进一些群体走向法庭,而非走上街头。     

Kids Voting and Political Knowledge: Narrowing Gaps,Informing Votes*

Objectives. Kids Voting USA is a program designed to educate schoolchildren about the democratic process and foster their political socialization. This article set out to explore the consequences of the Kids Voting program for political knowledge, knowledge gaps, and attitude‐behavior consistency. Methods. A sample of seventh and eighth graders in an urban school district were surveyed before (N=385) and shortly after (N=648) the 2000 general election. Results. Kids Voting exposure was positively related to political knowledge at Time 2 even after controlling for demographics, scholastic achievement, and attention to campaign news. There was no evidence that knowledge gaps widened between Time 1 and 2; in fact, African Americans and those with low initial knowledge gained the most. As political knowledge increased, party ID and issue attitudes became more predictive of candidate preference. Kids Voting exposure, too, was positively related to consistency between party ID and candidate preference, a relationship that was partially mediated by political knowledge. Conclusions. Political knowledge among these adolescents appeared to function much the way it does in adults: it equipped them to make political decisions that better reflected their attitudes. Kids Voting seems to contribute to this process, through knowledge and perhaps other avenues, without increasing knowledge gaps.     

Gender Jeopardy: What is the Impact of Gender Differences in Political Knowledge on Political Participation?*

Objective. We explore whether observed sex‐based differences in political knowledge have an impact on men's and women's participation in six different political activities. Methods. Utilizing ANES data from the five presidential elections between 1984 and 2000, we employ logistic regression to estimate the likelihood of voting, influencing a vote, attending a political meeting, working on a political campaign, wearing a political button, and making a campaign donation. Results. At lower levels of political knowledge, women's lower political knowledge depresses their participation in politics. The participation gap disappears at higher levels of political knowledge for three participatory acts: attempting to influence a vote, attending a political meeting, and donating to a political campaign. Furthermore, at higher levels of political knowledge, women are more likely than men to vote, wear a political button, or work for political campaigns. Conclusion. Our analysis reveals that political knowledge differentially affects men's and women's political participation. These findings complement existing scholarship that finds women hold themselves to a higher standard before engaging in political activities such as running for elected office.     

Will Democracy Win?

In reviewing the articles in this collection, four models of electoral participation are presented. Resources, party mobilization, electoral competition, and civic virtues are each important in driving turnout. Yet recent findings attest to the unique contribution of personality psychology in making sense of citizens' preferences and voting. A congruency-efficacy model is presented to account for both political preference and political participation and, ultimately, for voting. A cross-national and comparative view is recommended to fully appreciate the complexities of engagement in the key democratic process of voting.     

中国网民的政治价值观与网络抗争行为的限度

中国的市场化转型带来了政治价值观的变化,进而重塑着个体的政治参与行为,其中包括网络抗争行为。由于种种限制,互联网并不必然带来网络抗争,个人的政治价值观是重要的影响因素。基于全国性的概率抽样调查数据,本文首先构造了个人的政治价值观倾向得分,然后用广义倾向值匹配估算了政治价值观对批评政府官员或政策和讨论集体行动这两种网络抗争行为的响应函数和干预效应。结果显示,越趋向自由民主价值观,个人拥有这两种网络抗争经历的概率越高,且呈现强化趋势。但是,这种作用具有阈值效应,即自由民主价值观达到较高水平后,更高的自由民主价值观带来的网络抗争行为的发生概率反而更低。因此,除了来自政府和体制的外在限制,网络抗争还存在着内生于行动者本身的限制。本文通过实证研究证实了政治价值观对网络抗争行为产生的内在限制。     

The Myth of “Security Moms” and “NASCAR Dads”: Parenthood,Political Stereotypes,and the 2004 Election*

Objective. The objective of this article is to explore the impact of being a parent on political views and to test the accuracy of the “Security Mom” and “NASCAR Dad” labels that were pervasively applied in the context of the 2004 presidential election. Methods. The methods we employed consist of using data primarily from the 2004 National Election Study to determine whether parents differ from nonparents in terms of their political attitudes on a wide range of issues. We argue that parenthood affects women and men differently, so we analyze the sexes separately. Results. Mothers have important political distinctions from women without children, mostly in the case of social welfare issues. They do not, however, appear to be “Security Moms” in the post‐9/11 world. As for fathers, for the most part it makes little sense to talk about dads as a distinct voting bloc, as in very few cases do their political attitudes differ from men without children. Conclusions. The media's use of the labels “NASCAR Dad” and Security Mom” promoted an inaccurate understanding of the political preferences of parents. Beyond debunking these media myths, our results provide one of the first comprehensive looks at the impact of parenthood on political attitudes, an overlooked area in the adult socialization literature.