Participation and Democracy: Dynamics, Causes ... - Jacobs University

The European Social Survey (ESS 2002) asks the respondents about their membership
during the past 12 months in the following voluntary associations (see Appendix A7-1 for
question wording):
- sports club or club for outdoor activities,
- organization for cultural or hobby activities,
- trade union,
- business, professional or farmers’ organization,
- consumer or automobile organization,
- organization for humanitarian aid, human rights, minorities or immigrants,
- organization for environmental protection, peace or animal rights,
- religious or church organization,
- political party,
- organization for science, education, teachers or parents,
- social club, club for the young, the retired/elderly, women or friendly societies.
As virtually all scholars agree that social capital needs a structural basis to develop and to
be transmitted, people’s connectedness provides the structural precondition for
cooperation among individuals. On the aggregate level, organizational membership in a
society provides a good measure for the organizing capacity of a society (Wessels 1997:
199-200). So, membership in voluntary associations is calculated as the share of people
in a society organized in at least one association. Figure 7-1 shows how membership in
associations and elite-challenging activities are linked at the societal level.
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