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

Figure 7-5:
Informal Networks in European Societies and Elite-Challenging
Activities (ESS 2002)
80
70
Sweden
Elite-challenging activit ies, in %
60
50
40
30
Italy
Czech Republic
Luxembourg Finland
Belgium
Austria
Ireland
Israel
Spain
Switzerland
UK
Germany
Denmark
Norway
Netherlands
20
Poland
Slovenia
10
Hungary
Greece
Portugal
0
-2.40 -2.00 -1.60 -1.20 -0.80 -0.40 0.00 0.40 0.80 1.20 1.60 2.00
Strength of informal networks
Source: European Social Survey, 2002. Data are weighted to correct for a sampling bias within each sample (design
weight). R = .75 *** .
Elite-challenging activities: Percentage of respondents who “Have done” any of the following activities in the past 12
month: Signed petition, taken part in a lawful demonstration, boycotted certain products, or deliberately bought certain
products for political, ethical or environmental reasons.
Strength of informal networks: Factor scores (aggregate level), see Table 7-1.
The degree to which the members of a society are interconnected through horizontal ties
has a great impact on the productivity of social capital. Irrespective of the measures of the
structural aspect of social capital – formal membership in voluntary associations,
voluntary work or other forms of activity in the context of these organizations, or other
informal networks – the more a society is characterized through networks, the more
people are involved in elite-challenging forms of collective activities.
Table 7-2 turns to the question whether this linkage also holds at the individual level. The
idea is that a person has social capital at her/his disposal – similarly to other forms of
capital it is conceptualized as a kind of investment, here in social relations – that
promises an added value for personal benefit (Norris 2002: 138). Depending on the
objective of such an investment and on the structure, size and diversity of the network,
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