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

The empirical analyses exclude societies Freedom House considered as “not free” in the
year before, during and after the survey was conducted. 25 In Table 4-1, brackets “(x)”
mark that a survey was not considered for analysis. The Freedom House ratings 1981-
2008 for all societies included in the surveys can be found in Appendix A4-3.
4.3 Data Sets and Measures of Elite-Challenging Behavior
The succeeding empirical analyses will be based on data from different cross-cultural
survey projects, so the following section is dedicated to briefly introduce the various
survey data sets. Each of them holds different strengths. Indicators assessing individual
participation in elite-challenging activities that go farthest back in time can be found in
the studies conducted within the Political Action Project. One advantage of the project
(and its data) is it was conducted as an explicit participation study, designed “as a
substantial cross-national attempt to understand the nature of political participation in
advanced industrial democracies in the 1970ies” (Barnes 2004: 2).
Political Action Study
As a response to the student movements and emergence of new forms of citizens’
involvement, the Political Action Project was designed to understand the changing
nature of political participation in Western democracies of the 1970ies.
The major cross-national Political Action Study was conducted between 1973 and 1976,
covering eight countries: Austria, Great Britain, Finland, Italy, West Germany, the
Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States. Empirical results of that first Political
Action Study were published in Barnes, Kaase et al. (1979: “Political Action. Mass
Participation in Five Western Democracies”). 26 Between 1979 and 1981 a second study
followed in three of the eight original countries (West Germany, the Netherlands and the
25 Detailed information about when the fieldwork was conducted can be obtained from World Values
Survey Association website: www.worldvaluessurvey.org .
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