How Context Matters? Mobilization, Political Opportunity Structures and Non-Electoral Political Participation in Old and New Democracies

0432343 - SOÚ 2015 RIV CA eng J - Journal Article
Vráblíková, Kateřina
How Context Matters? Mobilization, Political Opportunity Structures and Non-Electoral Political Participation in Old and New Democracies.
Comparative Political Studies. Roč. 47, č. 2 (2014), s. 203-229. ISSN 0010-4140. E-ISSN 1552-3829
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP408/12/1474
Institutional support: RVO:68378025
Keywords : Political participation * political opportunity structure * national institutions
Subject RIV: AD - Politology ; Political Sciences
Impact factor: 2.028, year: 2014

Scholars have long argued that political participation is determined by institutional context. Within the voter turnout literature the impact of various institutional structures has been demonstrated in numerous studies. Curiously, a similar context driven research agenda exploring the correlates of non-electoral participation has not received the same attention. This study addresses this lacuna by testing a political opportunity structure model of citizen activism across 24 old and new democracies using ISSP (2004) data. Employing a multilevel modeling approach, this study tests a competition versus consensus conception of how decentralized institutions determine non-electoral participation. This research demonstrates that states with more competitive veto points operating through systems of horizontal and territorial decentralization increases individual non-electoral participation. More specifically, it interacts with social mobilization networks to promote greater citizen activism: institutional context counts only when citizens are mobilized.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0236734