Publishedparticipation PDF
Publishedparticipation PDF
Publishedparticipation PDF
Iasonas Lamprianou
1 Introduction
The issue of political participation has been a substantive area of interest for both
sociologists and political scientists, mainly because it pertains to the quintessential
act of democratic citizenship – voting at election for the House of Representatives.
While elections and voting behaviour attract the attention of many social science
researchers, various manifestations and forms associated with political engagement
in a broader sense have also received extensive study.
This chapter aims primarily to critically present a selection of contemporary
approaches and methodological tools for investigating political participation.
Granted that this is already an enormous area of research being conducted, it is
unrealistic to expect a fully-fledged examination of all works published so far. For
the twofold purpose of this paper it suffices (a) to discuss a wide range as possible of
quite different conceptualizations and definitions of political participation, while
(b) attempting to show that the typological division between conventional and
unconventional political participation is often artificial and elusive.
Discussion about extremist and often aggressive forms of political participationist
activism (as they are described in contemporary research), might be contrasted to the
perceptions cherished by the ancient Greek democrats as to citizen roles and civil duties
within their community, showing that classical Athenian democracy (in theory and
practice) did not draw any sharp distinction between diverse or conflicting types of
participation. The chapter concludes with a short section whereby the principal findings
from this critical assessment are briefly summarized along with some reflections on the
foundational role of sociological perspectives on political participation analysis.
I. Lamprianou (*)
Department of Social and Political Science, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537,
1678 Nicosia, Cyprus.
e-mail: iasonas@ucy.ac.cy
Alternatively some researchers do not focus on the praxis but only on the telos,
primarily by defining political participation as a set of activities aiming to influence
political authority. For example, Huntington and Nelson (1976, p.3) defined politi-
cal participation as an “activity by private citizens designed to influence govern-
ment decision-making” whereas Verba et al. (1995, p.38) characterized it as an
“activity that has the intent or effect of influencing government action – either
directly by affecting the making or implementation of public policy or indirectly by
influencing the selection of people who make those policies.” The praxis does not
seem to be important enough in the context of these definitions in as much as they
are mainly teleological in nature.
Such definitions, therefore, may imply that the telos is achieved through some
form of “pre-specified” praxis which is acceptable and lawful. According to such a
definition the Prime Minister, David Cameron, was almost certainly correct when
he stated that the recent riots in the UK were sheer criminal acts because the
methods used by the rioters were unlawful and went clearly beyond the acceptable
boundaries of the political establishment and its institutional norms. On the other
hand, the Labour Party (i.e. currently the opposition in the UK) condemned the acts
of violence even though he argued that there was an “in-convenient truth”, i.e.
a message passed by the riots which had to be addressed by politicians (Miliband
2011). Consequently, the riots can be seen as events charged with a visible form of
political engagement and the rioters as conveying a political message, even though
they were acting unlawfully. In other words, their political praxis was illegal albeit
symbolically effective even though they justifiably drew wide condemnation from
many quarters.
Arguably, being able to voice a group’s demands in the public sphere is one of
the indications of a sustainable democratic system and may be seen as a desirable
form of political participation. Much has been written over the last decades about
the rights of individuals and groups to enter the public sphere as actors who are able
to legitimately voice their demands. For example, Jasiewicz (2011) examined how
ethnic minorities in Poland participate in the political spheres of society by
articulating their views through the mass media, speaking their native languages
although this “provokes negative reactions of parliamentary representatives and of
common Poles” (p. 736). According to Jasiewicz, the opportunity given to ethnic
groups to openly express their claims coincided with Poland’s process of demo-
cratic consolidation, following the events of 1989 when minority actors “seized on
conventional forms of action including public statements, letters, interviews and
conferences” and gave up “confrontational forms of action” (p.750). In this case,
democratization process co-exists with an explicit commitment to disallow non-
institutional (“confrontational”) methods and to comply with more predictably
conventional political methods.
Interestingly, the distinction between the teleological and praxial nature of
political participation can be very important and intriguing, although this is not
always adequately addressed in relevant literature. For example, does occupying or
burning public buildings during a demonstration (i.e. the telos being to influence
decision-making via demonstrating aggressively or confrontationally), constitute
24 I. Lamprianou
an acceptable method of political participation? That is, would such acts count as
“political participation engagement” even though they are apparently outside the
legal frame and the institutional practices a society is accustomed to? Some
researchers stick to a hierarchy of political engagement by drawing a sharp distinc-
tion between “legal” and “illegal” political participation, and suggesting that
evaluating the nature of the praxis determines its qualitative place on the
participationist map. This dichotomous distinction between formal and informal
(or legal and illegal) political action has an academic prehistory of many decades.
Thus the orthodox approach referred to “democratic participation (conventional
and unconventional methods of legal political activity in democracies) and aggres-
sive participation (civil disobedience and political violence) . . . [as] analytically
distinct types of political behaviour” (Muller 1982, p. 1). Similarly, scientists
employed an analogous terminology to capitalize on the differences between
democratic and aggressive participation (see Opp et al. 1981), yet newer studies
also lay emphasis on the distinction between legal and illegal activities (see Lavrič
et al. 2010). So the dilemma remains: Should European democracies proceed to
accommodate the political telos of an activity ignoring the potentially violent
nature of the praxis? In other words, is the telos sufficiently important to excuse
the unpredictability and impulsiveness of any praxis? Let us try to illuminate this
issue by referring back to the genesis of democracy.
The ancient Athenians – the people who invented democracy – did not consis-
tently or necessarily distinguish between the praxis and the telos of political
participationist actions. In fact, they seemed to have projected the value of the
telos behind political engagement over the praxis. It appears that in classical Athens
even man-slaughter could be an acceptable form of political participation. For
example, Athenian citizens considered it their duty to assassinate those who were
planning to take control of the polis without respect for law and democratic
institutions. According to Gagarin and Fantham (2010), after the oligarchic
revolutions of 411 BC, all Athenians passed a decree initiated by Demophantus
to the effect that the killer of any overthrower of the democracy might not be held
liable for any penalty. The decree was publicly inscribed and displayed and an oath
was taken by all tribes and the demes swearing to kill any tyrant or overthrower of
democracy – an oath that led many oligarchs to withdraw from the city. In fact, the
sons of any man killed in the process of prosecuting potential tyrants would receive
benefits such as “proedria” (front-row seats in the theatre), “sitēsis” (free public
meals) and “ateleia” (exemption from certain taxes). Several ancient sources
(e.g. Thucydides in his “History of the Peloponnesian War” (VI, 56–59) and the
Aristotelian “The Constitution of the Athenians” (XVIII)) recount the story of the
tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who were killed on the spot while
stabbing to death the tyrant Hipparchus. With their action to assassinate the tyrant,
Harmodius and Aristogeiton “were increasingly woven into the fabric of Athenian
ideology and institutionalized as the very essence of Athen’s democratic polity”
(Gagarin and Fantham 2010, p. 130). After the establishment of democracy,
Cleisthenes commissioned the sculptor Antenor to produce a bronze statue of the
two heroes who were considered the champions and founder spirits of Athenian
Contemporary Political Participation Research: A Critical Assessment 25
democracy. That was the very first statue to be paid for out of public funds, because
Harmodius and Areistogeiton were the first Greeks considered by their countrymen
worthy of having statues raised to them. Such was the social apotheosis they
enjoyed that a special law was issued prohibiting the erection of any other statues
around! On their statue, the Athenians inscribed a verse by the poet Simonides:
“A marvellous great light shone upon Athens, when Aristogeiton and Harmodius
slew Hipparchus.”
Of course, acts of violence (i.e. praxial activism) cannot be considered as
legitimate forms of political participation. Indeed certain activities have been
characterised in the literature as unorthodox or extreme forms of political engage-
ment. In the case of Athens, however, one should consider that the ancient
Athenians’ fundamental concern was the survival of democracy itself: the whole
political system was designed, with many safety-valves introduced, in such a way
as to minimize the risk of a new tyrannical power exploiting the people. For
example, many officials were not directly elected by the people but chosen by lot,
so that the influential and rich would be prohibited from seizing the most important
branches of government. The foundational logic of Athenian democracy and the
democratic constitution in general was that all citizens should have taken an active
part in the decision making and at the same time being eligible to public office. The
underlying telos was safeguarding democratic rule and to that end almost any
praxis, even manslaughter, could be permissible and even legitimate.
Research on political participation since the 1970s has often distinguished
conventional and unconventional political actions depending on the qualitative
attributes of the praxis. As shown above, a specific praxis can qualify as an act of
political participation if it serves the concept of “telos” in the decision-making
process or, at least serves the need of publicizing information or views related to an
issue of public concern. Conventional forms of participation are far more structured
and normally lawful, e.g. being a member of a political party, voting, lobbying,
campaigning, attending political meetings, contacting officials, etc. In this context,
one refers to forms of participation which are intrinsically embedded in the
accepted boundaries of institutional politics. Such activities, in this respect, might
be called “formal” (Henn and Foard 2012). Yet, less traditional or non-institutional
forms of participation such as participating to a protest march, signing a petition or
boycotting products have also received much attention in the past few decades.
Recently, Bourne (2010) presented the following list of participation activities as
being unconventional: protests, demonstrations, barricading a community, firing at
the security forces, blogging and using the social commentaries on talk radio.
Marsh (1990) described such activities as “elite-challenging”, probably insinuating
confrontational participation, although unconventional practices do not necessarily
have to be illegal or unlawful. Opp et al. (1981) and Muller (1982) defined some of
those activities as “aggressive”, whereas other scholars simply called activities such
as “writing graffiti” and “damaging property at political gatherings” as illegal
(Lavrič et al. 2010).
Based on some qualitative characteristics of the praxis and judging from their
consequences, some forms of unconventional participation were considered on a
26 I. Lamprianou
scale of a more or less extremism and thus less acceptable, both socially and legally:
for example, Bourne (2010) characterized firing at security forces as “unorthodox”
political participation because it goes one step further than simply being unconven-
tional. A distinction is sometimes drawn between unconventional and unorthodox
participationist methods with the latter being more extreme or violent in nature.
Despite the anachronism, one might assume that the praxis of Harmodius and
Aristogeiton to murder the tyrant Hipparchus would most likely be classified as
unorthodox or a form of extreme and thus unlawful political engagement. It would
most likely be characterised as an “illegal” activity. Understandably, such extreme
actions as manslaughter have not found their way into institutional (or conven-
tional) politics in the modern world, although it is not clear how Western
democracies would react if they had to face a dilemma between an imaginary
democratic decline (because dictators get to power) and assassinating ambitious
usurpers to power. The Athenian democrats had had no hesitation: for the sake of
democracy, not only the tyrants themselves, but anyone who was related to them
could face the death penalty. The orator Aeschines, in a famous speech, written
during a court trial against his political opponents (Against Timarchus), about 50
years after the trial of Socrates, asked the Jury: “Did you, O men of Athens, execute
Socrates the sophist because he was shown to have been the teacher of Critias, one
of the Thirty [tyrants] who put down the democracy. . .?” According to Wilson
(2007), Aeschines “clearly expected the obvious reply to his rhetorical question to
be Yes: Socrates was killed for teaching Critias” (p. 83) assuming that Critias’
mentor should be held accountable because his former student ended up being a
tyrant. But there is also a between-the-lines message: arguably, Aeschines would
not hesitate to ask the Athenians to pursue the Socratic example and take the life of
Demosthenes, his political opponent. No praxis for the citizens of Athens would
have appeared unlawful had it served the telos of protecting the vitality of democ-
racy. No sharp distinction was drawn between conventional and unorthodox or
illegal political praxis as long as the demos (the assembly of the citizens) believed
that it was serving the democratic system.
Today, in addition to the categorization of political activities as conventional
and unconventional (including unorthodox, aggressive, extreme, illegal activities,
etc.), other forms of participation have been specified and characterized in terms of
“alternative participation” because they take an “aloof” stance towards official
institutions. For example, Riley et al. (2010) explore electronic dance music culture
as an alternative (and certainly unconventional) form of political participation
which does not have a social change agenda. Such alternative forms of participation
have also been defined as unofficial and informal by other researchers (Gill 2007;
Harris 2001). This development, however, introduces a minor complexity in
our original definition of political participation because it asserts that operating
within the context of changing things does not always have to be the telos of a
political activity. Reconsidering this minor complexity should be integral to
redefining “political participation” in as much as there is already an accumulated
literature regarding unofficial/informal/alternative political participation. Drawing
on existing literature and on what has been discussed above, Fig. 1 is a visualization
Contemporary Political Participation Research: A Critical Assessment 27
trying to identify how political participation (in light of a variety of definitions and
tools of measurement) relates to other important variables, such as age and gender.
In the next section, we will discuss how political participation was investigated in
relation to other important variables.
Political participation is not static; it is a very dynamic and evolving social phenom-
enon. At various times, people are more likely to be more or less politically active.
For example, Riley et al. (2010) suggested that we are currently experiencing a
period of alienation from traditional politics. They cited Colman and Gøtze (2001)
and Griffin (2005) to suggest that distancing from traditional politics and structures
is part of the rapid transformation of the political landscape. Alienation from politics
does not seem however to be such a wide-ranging phenomenon: it does not affect
uniformly all people and all societies at the same time. A number of factors have
been identified as being related to political participation. Vecchione and Caprara
(2009) found that gender, education and age are significant factors affecting partici-
pation levels. More specifically, they found that more educated people, along with
males and older people are more likely to engage into political activities as com-
pared to other groups. Further, they found that income rate was not significantly
related to political participation. Stolle and Hooghe (2009) – in agreement to
previous research – identified relevant variables like gender, education and age
that have an impact on political participation. Also, Verba et al. (1995) suggested
that education is a dynamic predictor of political participation whereas Conway
(2001) claimed that, although gender gaps in political participation are shrinking,
male population is still more actively engaged than females.
Age as a determinant of political involvement has been a very popular theme in
participation research. It has been argued that a number of young people may feel
isolated and even excluded from a political system which tends to be self-
reproduced and often self-serving. Lister (2007) argues that since young people
are often considered to be immature and continue to be financially dependent on
their parents, they are often not treated as equal members of the planning process
and power arrangements. However, marginalisation by adult political structures
seems to a certain extent to be enforced on young individuals – they do not distance
themselves out of a voluntary choice. It has been argued that existing political
systems cannot decode how alienation mechanisms work in relation to young
people (see Russell et al. 2002; Power Commission 2006; Youth Citizenship
Commission 2009). Along the same lines, Smith et al. (2005) maintain that many
young people are led to understand political participation as predominantly the
province of adults. There is a steadily increasing corpus of research which suggests
that young people are not generally “disengaged” from politics, but instead that
they have a critical attitude towards institutional politics (Briggs 2008; Henn et al.
2002, 2005; O’Toole et al. 2003; Phelps 2004, 2005). It has been suggested that
“feelings of political efficacy are ineluctably bound in with perceptions of the
Contemporary Political Participation Research: A Critical Assessment 29
One of the complexities related to younger people civic and political engagement
actually revolves around the definition of “young” and “youth”. According to
Mycock and Tonge (2012), different parties in the UK have different membership
criteria for the youth wings of their parties, ranging from a ceiling of 26 years for the
Young Labour and Liberal Youth (in the UK) up to a ceiling of 35 years for the
United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Different criteria apply in other
countries as well, even amongst parties with similar or even identical ideological
affiliation; for example, the Young Liberals in Australia have an acceptable mem-
bership age range of 16–30 (Young Liberals 2012) while in the UK some parties set
the lower limit at the age of 18, that is when people get their right to vote. The
discussion may become even more complicated if one considers that an individual’s
actual maturity and ability to act in politically meaningful ways may not strictly
correspond to her or his biological age, as immature and irresponsible individuals
could exist at all ages. It is also likely that various societies may have different
standards for determining the status of social, economic and emotional indepen-
dence of young people from their parental families. Even international organizations
have not widely agreed upon a definition of “youth”: the United Nations and the
World Bank consider individuals under the age range of 15–24 as youths whereas
the World Health Organization defines youth in the age range of 15–34.
It appears incontestably that investigating the conceptual parameters and factors
determining political participation and civic engagement is a multi-complicated
task. In this chapter, I maintain that there is stereotyping due to over-generalization
and over-simplification when summarizing results from field research. One cannot,
for example, talk about “the young people” as if they were a single-minded
biological entity. Young people are not a homogeneous group of people attached
to the same behavioural attitudes towards participation in political activities. For
example, Geniets (2010) has showed that young women from low socio-economic
backgrounds are among the least politically engaged compared to other groups.
In-depth interviews with young women of lower socio-economic status in the UK
showed that the political disengagement of those women cannot be explained away
as a condition of apathy but must be viewed in a wider context of techno-social and
cultural change. Geniets (2010) concluded that “it has been established that tradi-
tional political media do not reach young women from low socioeconomic status
30 I. Lamprianou
backgrounds” (p. 409). Rossi (2009) gives a good account of different perspectives
on who may be considered as “young” and cites Alexandra Vidanovic, a youth
specialist of the Balkan Children and Youth Foundation in the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia (FYROM): “. . . young people have been turned into young-
old people . . . having grown up and matured too soon” [because of the war
turbulence in the Balkans] (p. 472). Age or gender alone cannot apparently help
us predict a person’s mode of reasoning or growth of social habits, unless we know
many more details about his or her contextual background, such as the environment
in which he or she has grown up.
The following two sections elaborate on the premise that theories of political
engagement should not mainly focus on specific variables such as age or gender,
unless these are studied within a wider sociological context. Although one cannot
expect to generate “a grand theory of political participation”, I will try to show that
existing research has been defragmented (and on certain occasions lacking theoret-
ical grounding) and may need to capitalize more frequently on comprehensive
social theories.
nature of their political activity on the basis not only of personal but also of
contextual-situational factors (e.g., social pressure, health condition, leisure time,
etc.). This theory seems to be more flexible than disengagement theory because it
implies that some people (depending on personal and situational factors) may
choose to strengthen rather than reduce their political participation (when they
have enough free time, for example).
Jennings and Markus (1988) focus on the relationship between socio-
demographic variables (such as age, marital status and gender) and levels of
political participation from an equally interesting perspective. Their approach is
defined as the “cohort composition theory”, emphasizing the importance of cohort
deprivation. The general idea is that lower participation rates found among older
age groups compared to younger people (for example on on-line political partici-
pation) may be a consequence of the fact that older people generally become less
well equipped, less educated and less prepared to participate (as time advances and
the means of participation are changing). According to some researchers (e.g.,
Verba and Ni 1972), education is conceived as an integral component of the
patterns of political participation. This approach is constructively flexible since
it can explicate how certain social groups are inclined towards more intense
(or diversified) political engagement compared to other groups, especially with
regard to specific participatory activities and in light of their differential attitudes
(rooted in their educational backgrounds) towards politics.
Let us discuss the three theories just mentioned in the context of the riots that
occurred in the summer of 2011 in the UK. It has been a widespread speculation that
the social media, such as Twitter and text messaging, have played a significant role
in the riots (Baker 2012). Although social media, such as Twitter, have been blamed
for sparking and coordinating the unrest, recent research has shown that “there is
little overt evidence that Twitter was used to promote illegal activities at the time,
though it was useful for spreading word about subsequent events” (Tonkin et al.
2012). Indeed, social networking services such as Twitter are disproportionally
used by specific population groups, such as young people. Getting real-time infor-
mation through Twitter about upcoming events (not related to illegal activities such
as looting) and getting actively involved at very short notice, demands that a person
can actually use technology effectively, has the physical strength to join the others
in the streets and has no other serious commitments (such as having to be at the
office, having to look after small children or dependent’s health, etc.). Arguably,
participation in subsequent events during the riots must have been easier for some
younger or unemployed people and students, simply because they could afford to
be there. The fact that older people were not as visible as younger people during the
riots cannot be simply explained in light of the “political atrophy” concept
expounded by the political disengagement theory. According to the age-appropriate
participation theory, older people might choose to participate in the riots using other
methods which might have suited them more, for example by voicing their views in
the press or by contacting local politicians. Cohort composition theory postulates
that it was easier for younger people to follow the Tweets because they make use of
technology media more frequently, whereas older generations cannot benefit from
contemporary technological developments.
32 I. Lamprianou
In effect, all three of the theories presume that people make a decision at some
point in their life (or a decision is forced upon them by other determining factors)
about re-adjusting their activities and political participation. When that occurs, it is
not unnatural or alarming however. Apprehensions about the effects of a progres-
sively declining political participation is not a new phenomenon – actually it is as
old as the democratic system itself. For example, the ancient Athenians took
measures to encourage their fellow citizens to attend as participating members
the workings of the “ekklesia tou demou” because various contingencies could be
an impediment to an equal chance to participate. According to Aristotle, in ancient
Athens “all the citizens actually take part in . . . [the democratic procedures,
elections, etc.] and exercise their citizenship, because even the poor are enabled
to be at leisure by receiving pay” (Aristotle, Politeia, 1293a). Only the tyrants and
the oligarchically-minded elites favoured popular apathy and the ordinary people’s
alienation from politics. Political participation in classical Athens, along with
transparency and accountability, were the cornerstones of democracy. It is worth
mentioning that in the fourth century BC, when Timocrates (an Athenian politician)
had proposed that the Athenians loosen enforcement of penalties against those who
owed debts to the polis, the orator Demosthenes asserted that such a decision would
deprive the treasury of funds and consequently the state could not reimburse the
citizens for attendance at the Assembly. Demosthenes went on to equate such an
outcome (i.e. limited participation in the Assembly), with the end of democracy
(Demosthenes, “Against Timocrates”, 24.99).
Various other theories have been developed (in addition to those discussed
above) to analyse the determinants of political behaviour and engagement and
consequently enable predictions about civic participation levels. For example,
granted that individuals are rational thinkers, Riker and Ordeshook (1968)
elaborated on the work of Downs (1957) in order to develop a decision-theoretical
framework for explaining why people vote (or don’t vote). This theory has been
presented in a calculus form as “U ¼ P B – C” where U is the utility of voting, B
is the expected benefit when the preferred candidate or party wins, P is the
probability that the vote cast will decide the outcome of the election and finally C
is the costs of voting. It is therefore claimed that an individual is more likely to vote
when P B > C. Indeed there is a rich literature related to this theory, e.g. for
group membership see Moe (1980), for rebellions see Muller and Opp (1986), for
party activity see Whiteley (1995) and for political participation in general see
Nagel (1987). Even very recent studies continue to elaborate on this theory which
seems to be enduring (e.g. see Back et al. 2011). However, many sociologists would
be rather sceptical about the idea that a simple formula can explain such a complex
mechanism as human behaviour, let alone the concept that humans are really
rational thinkers!
Interestingly, political participation has been thought to refer to a paradoxical
phenomenon by the proponents of rational or positivistic theories of human
behaviour. Why people do bother to vote if the effect of their vote is eventually
negligible in a large country among millions of registered voters? Or, why
should an individual undertake costs of participating in a democratic process
Contemporary Political Participation Research: A Critical Assessment 33
(i.e. participation requires time and energy, plus it may incur some financial or other
expenses) if the outcome will eventually benefit everyone, even those who did not
bother to participate? Indeed, more research has been done along the lines of the
rationalist theory of human behaviour (an action being the product of rational
calculation) in order to expand a more realistic analysis model (for more informa-
tion, see Back et al. 2011). However, any enterprise along these lines cannot
overcome the philosophical dispute over the rationality or irrationality of human
thinking and acting – thus from the sociological perspective one would be reluctant
to accept such a deterministic view of human behaviour.
The main assumption of the present critical assessment is that providing explan-
atory patterns for such a complex phenomenon as political participation we are in
need of a more versatile theory based on sociological foundations. That political
participation has many layers of complexity has been well demonstrated by the
typology of engagement offered by Snell (2010). Political engagement typology
indicates that young people approach politics with more or less information, more
or less trust in politicians and the political parties, more or less sense of efficacy and
more or less sense of civic duty. It appears from this analysis that a lack of any one
of these characteristics may cause a growing adult to remain politically inactive,
thereby tipping the scale toward a majority who are disengaged and a minority who
have enough of each of the characteristics to be semi- to fully politically engaged.
But as young people are growing up in specific contexts, they naturally become
active agents within their cultural settings and experience. In the next two sections,
I will discuss political participation through sociological theories which are embed-
ded in the research sub-field of the “theory of practice”. More specifically, I will
apply Bourdieu’s concept of “habitus” to suggest that political engagement may be
the manifestation of a habitus within the field of political and social life of
“evolving adults”. Further, I will introduce ideas deriving from the post-modernist
school of thought and analyse the nature and the limitations of contemporary
research in the field of political participation.
Pierre Bourdieu coined the notion of “habitus” in order to describe “the permanent
internalisation of the social order in the human body” (Eriksen and Nielsen 2001,
p. 130), while observing that individuals have a capacity for invention and impro-
visation (Bourdieu 1990). According to Bourdieu’s theory of action, the world is
surrounded by structural constraints which form “permanent dispositions”
representing various schemes of perception which are very generic and often
originate from conventional categories, like male/female or young/old. However,
these internalized dispositions also regulate the way an individual behaves or takes
decisions (Bourdieu 1977, p. 15). Social life may be perceived as an on-going effort
on the part of the individual to find equilibrium in a world full of formidable social
constraints, drawing on his or her cultural resources in order to survive. The concept
34 I. Lamprianou
Following this line of reasoning, the idea of humans as rational beings, i.e.
calculating, balancing and rebalancing costs and benefits, appears highly disput-
able. However, the toolbox of the Bourdieun theory is even richer: derived from the
Hellenic term “doxa”, Bourdieu defined term to represent deeply internalised
societal or field-specific presuppositions that are taken for granted and are not up
for negotiation (Bourdieu 1998, 66–7). In other words, these are things which “go
without saying”, i.e. they are accepted by default by agents who act in a specific
field of social activity. For Bourdieu, practice is constructed on the dispositions
which are inherent in habitus and unfolds as “strategic improvisations – goals and
interests pursued as strategies – against a background of doxa that ultimately limits
them” (Parkin 1997, p. 376).1
Having said that, habitus should neither be considered as a result of free will nor
determined fully by other external forces and constraints, but is shaped by a kind of
negotiation and moderation over time. The key-word here is the term “over time”
which implies that a habitus takes time to negotiate and crystallize. This is in
agreement with Snell (2010) who suggests that “social scientific explorations of
political engagement among emerging adults need to take into account the levels of
materialism or individualism, trust or distrust, hope or pessimism, and moral
convictions and capabilities for principled thinking” (p. 266). These are individual
character traits which appear in childhood and mature in adulthood. In many cases,
society would expect these “traits” to be affected and steered by education,
although an individual’s character is also affected by his or her immediate environ-
ment. Consequently, a habitus pertaining to political participation is gradually
being constructed, within the constraints of actuality. Once the “political
1
For more information, the interested reader is redirected to Postill (2010).
Contemporary Political Participation Research: A Critical Assessment 35
Formal theories of sociology are very important for understanding political engage-
ment behaviour because they provide tools for exploring determinants of participa-
tion. For example, Cainzos and Voces (2010) used data from 20 countries from the
first round of the European Social Survey to demonstrate the causal relationship
between social class and political participation. Hence empirical evidence seems to
contest modern theories which predict the decline of social class and the generation
of post-modern societies where class becomes progressively less relevant in deter-
mining political behaviour. Cainzos and Voces (2010) is thus a very important
study as it employs vigorous quantitative evidence derived from an almost pan-
European study, showing that the study of political participation, guided by socio-
logical approaches, can yield fruitful and instructive results. Apparently, both the
constraints and the various forms of capital at the disposal of different classes
of people can constitute influential determinants of their potential participation
habitus. According to Cainzos and Voces (2010),
Contemporary Political Participation Research: A Critical Assessment 37
The main lesson that can be drawn . . . is quite straightforward: in the field of political
participation, class still matters. A significant and substantively meaningful association
between class and political action can be observed in most European countries . . . the
evidence offered in this article seems most compatible with the idea of a continuing
political relevance of class, contrary to the prophecies of class decomposition and in
keeping with the findings of research both on class voting and on the relationship between
class and political preferences which have questioned the “new orthodoxy” of the declining
political significance of class . . . (p. 407).
more harmony between what they do and how they feel. Such a theory is not in
disagreement with Bourdieu’s theory of the gradual, over time, crystallization of a
habitus of political participation whereby the individuals develop strategies based on
their resources, within the frame of doxa which represents their beliefs and attitudes.
Trust is one of the traits or dispositions people develop and crystallize as they
would growing up from childhood to being teenagers and adults, thus obtaining a
“feel for the game”, according to Bourdieu. I have already referred to Snell (2010),
Sloam (2007) and Quintelier and Hooghe (2011) who have studied social and
political trust. On trust, one should draw a reference to the wide-ranging work by
Francis Fukuyama, “Trust: the social virtues and the creation of prosperity”.
Fukuyama (1995) capitalizes on the moral bonds of social trust – the bonds that
promote a cohesive society in which “collective action” is justified and the individ-
ual creativity is empowered. Although the work of Fukuyama is rather more
“economy-oriented”, it should be admitted that conceptualizing trust as a form of
social capital is valuable. Rothstein (2005) has also investigated the lack of social
capital in societies where trust collapsed, even if cooperation would eventually
benefit all. Famously, Bo Rothstein maintained that people will cooperate only if
they believe that others will also cooperate and suggested that trustworthy political
institutions and public policies tend to build trust and thus greater social capital.
Characteristically, Rothstein concluded his book by stating that trust is generated
through the capacity for dialogue and effective participation.
One could go on exploring and analysing many theories and previous published
work of great importance (e.g. the work by Robert Putnam and Stephen Ball) which
were developed to explain, predict or describe trust and political participation. This
chapter does not defend a specific theory or conceptualization of political partici-
pation, not even the work of Bourdieu on which many references have been drawn.
The main thesis put forward is that relevant studies should lay more emphasis on
empirical research based on solid theoretical patterns designed to explicate political
participation as part of the individuals’ social life. The view of a habitus of political
participation is a ground-breaking analytical tool as is founded on solid sociological
thinking, although post-modernist theories of diffused power and the discussion
over the decline of social class have been in the march recently.
Conclusion
The aim of this chapter was to critically explore aspects of contemporary
research on political participation. To this end, I have
(a) Discussed different conceptualizations and definitions of political participation
as they are presented in contemporary research;
(b) Investigated the validity of the distinction between conventional and
unconventional participation and suggested that it might be redundant
or in need of drastic revision;
(c) Referred to how the ancient Athenians, the inventors of democracy,
conceptualized political participation and presented some evidence to
the effect that they did not distinguish between extreme and conventional
political participation;
Contemporary Political Participation Research: A Critical Assessment 39
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