Where There's a Will, There's a Way? Civic Participation and Social Inequality

Abstract

Given that the quality and solidity of civil society depend on the amount of civic engagement, the question why some groups engage while others do not becomes a major issue for research. This paper aims to identify factors that might explain whether or not citizens participate in civil society. In terms of theory, we refer to both Bourdieu's concept of ‘capitals’ as resources for civic participation and Putnam's viewpoint, which argues that civic participation is particularly motivated by trust, norms and networks. In the empirical part of the paper, we use data from the European Social Survey for Austria to identify potential factors that might explain civic participation. Based on regression and CHAID analyses, two indicators appear to be particularly important in explaining differences in the civic participation of individuals, i.e. citizenship values and social networks and activities. These variables are the strongest predictors regarding all types of participation analysed (donating money, volunteering and entering a membership association).

Keywords:

• Civic participation
• social inequality
• Bourdieu
• Putnam
• European Social Survey

Notes

A variable on engagement in political parties was removed from this item battery because we are only including fields that are basically open to the general public, while the political sector often requires preconditions for participation (e.g. citizenship or a minimum age).