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

citizens used SMS to keep informed and mobilize each other into what later became the
largest mass demonstration in Spanish history. Online or email campaigns themselves
have developed into new forms of action. Clearly, these activities and the way they are
coordinated do not follow the logic of regular face-to-face meetings known from
voluntary organizations. As a consequence, there exists an easy exit option for
participants (Stolle and Hooghe 2005: 5), which contributes to the ad-hoc and sporadic
character of these activities.
New forms of action: Individual acts and collective outcomes
It is obvious that any form of political participation, including elite-challenging actions,
needs many to achieve an effect (Sapiro 2000:11). These new activities are collective in
their effects as well. The difference, however, is that the participation act itself is a more
individualized form of political action. Examples are forwarding emails, buy-cotting a
certain product in the supermarket or signing a petition. It is clear, however, that all
these activities, though individual in nature, still need an opportunity structure and the
coordination of the activities in order to be successful. “This leads to a paradox: while
these forms of protest and participation can often be seen as examples of coordinated
collective action, most participants simply performs such acts alone, at home before a
computer screen or in a supermarket” (Stolle and Hooghe 2005: 6).
In the past decades we could observe a change in the political action repertoire. The
expansion towards elite-challenging activities such as demonstrations, petitions or
political consumerism has posed the question whether and how these activities fit into
the definition of political participation. Some have even claimed that we are running into
the danger of a “broad theory of everything” when expanding the concept of political
participation to all these new action forms (van Deth 2001). However, a conception of
political participation that focuses too narrowly on traditional forms, targets and issues
falls into the trap of falling behind reality and ignoring innovations, thus
underestimating the interest and willingness of citizens around the world to be
politically engaged. It also has important consequences for the way possible
implications of elite-challenging activities are interpreted.
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