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

The results in Table 9-6 show that all three approaches can, to a certain degree, explain
what motivates people into participating, and that these factors still come through after
controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and mutual influences. Of the three
factors, however, support for democracy shows the weakest impact (note that an odds
ratio = 1.00 means that there is no difference between groups in the probability for an
event to happen (i.e. to participate) and for an event not to happen (i.e. not to
participate)). Participation in elite-challenging activities is more driven by people’s
political involvement and their liberal orientation: Whereas in most of the postcommunist
European societies (with the exception of Central Eastern Europe) the
importance of politics has a greatest impact on participation, in all other country groups
(and strongest in Western Europe, Anglo-Saxon societies and Southern Asia) it is a
liberal view on human emancipation that motivates people into elite-challenging
activities.
The previous analyses could find no evidence – neither at the individual nor at the
aggregate level – that elite-challenging participation poses a threat to democracy.
Participants show high support for the idea of democracy and at the same time reject
authoritarian alternatives; they are motivated by a process-oriented understanding of
democracy; they show high levels of political involvement and emancipative values. It
should be noted, however, that several of these characteristics are most pronounced in
postindustrial societies. A similar link can be found at the aggregate level: In societies
with higher levels of elite-challenging activities political processes are more democratic
and elites less corrupt. The rise of elite-challenging publics gives therefore no reason to
worry about democracy.
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