![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
Abstract
This research examines what motivates residents to become involved in a community-based issue, focusing on how living in close proximity, trust in local officials, and perceptions of decision-making processes influence involvement in a Utah community. Delving into a particular issue provides an opportunity to explore relationships shaping how local politics play out. This study finds that living in close proximity and trust matter in motivating involvement in local politics, while process-based arguments tied to the issue regarding resident expectations do not influence involvement in this case. The results thus suggest that neither lack of trust nor dissatisfaction appears to have a detrimental influence on local democratic processes. Indeed, it appears that in this community a healthy dose of skepticism can promote active engagement with local politics.
Keywords:
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Stephanie Malin for her assistance formatting the article, and the USU Agricultural Experiment Station No. 840.
Notes
Note. N = 166; maximum likelihood estimates; std. errors in parentheses.
*p < .05.
The road proposed to be widened is called the Dugway as it was literally dug to “haul timber and stones from the mountains to build cabins, a stockade, and the [Latter Day Saints] temple” (Parker, Citation2002, p. A4).
The SES model of participation has been extensively studied (Brady et al., Citation1995; Verba et al., Citation1995). The study also draws from research demonstrating the salience of age and gender (Schlozman, Burns, & Verba, Citation1999).
Areas from city plat maps where there was no residential property owner (i.e., cemeteries, public lands, business sites, industrial zones, etc.) were removed. Since no businesses are located in the area where the Dugway was to be widened, all businesses were eliminated from the randomly selected property owners for consistency. Property owner lists were obtained for both those living near the Dugway and for randomly selected sections of the city. For the latter, using a simple random sample, every nth property owner was selected from each list of property owners to obtain the city sample of property owners.
In sex composition, the sample contains more males than the 2000 Census data for Logan (52% female and 48% male). Twenty-six percent of respondents hold a bachelor's degree compared to 34% of those in the 2000 Census. The sample differs from the overall population in average age, 56 years, compared to the median census age of 24. This discrepancy is due to the sampling procedure relying on property owners described in note 3, who tend to be older than the university population.
Briefly, unstandardized regression weights range from .889 to 1.283 (all significant, p < .001), values for the standardized regression weights range from .641 to .883, and squared multiple correlation values range from .411 to .779. The chi-square value of 3.274 (df = 7) is non-significant, which combined with other measures of goodness of fit, including an IFI value of 1.00 and 1-RMSEA of 1.00, demonstrate excellent fit.
The unstandardized regression weights ranging from .891 to 1.015 (all significant, p < .001), values for standardized regression weights range from .789 to .871, and squared multiple correlation values range from .623 to .759. A chi-square value of 1.919 (df = 1) is non-significant, which combined with an IFI of 1.00 and 1-RMSEA of .92, demonstrate excellent to good fit.
The groups are service and fraternal organizations, recreational groups, job-related organizations, church or other religious groups, college clubs, informal organizations, local chapters of conservation organizations, youth groups, local government, and school organizations.
Auxiliary analyses (not shown) do not suggest the presence of multicollinearity in the model. Moreover, the interaction between the two was also nonsignificant (analyses not shown).