Associations and the Exercise of Democratic ... - Citizenship DRC

IDS WORKING PAPER 285Associational participation, however, is itself highly stratified along socioeconomiclines in São Paulo. It is far less so in Mexico City. The descriptivestatistics earlier in the paper already suggested that associational participation ishighly stratified along socio-economic lines. Here we use multivariate models(probits) for associational participation in São Paulo and Mexico City to calculatethe average proclivity of a person, with a particular characteristic, such as lowleveleducation, to participate in associations (Tables B.3 and B.4, Appendix B). ForSão Paulo we are able to identify robust determinants, but not in the case ofMexico City.The unequal distribution of associational participation across social strata – basedon education, gender, and labour market status – appears to limit the overallreduction in the impact of socio-economic stratification on civil relations in SãoPaulo. In Mexico City associational participation is likely to be distributed randomlyacross the factors we have examined – that is, education, gender, labour marketinsertion, as well as by religion and some regions of the city.Education-based stratification in associational participation is especially severe inthe Brazilian city (Table B.3). The share of the well educated (with some highereducation) who participate in associations is three times that of people with littleeducation. On average only 14 per cent of people with little education willparticipate in associations, while 43 per cent of people with some higher educationwill participate. There is further a substantial difference by income and by form oflabour market participation. Holding education constant, nearly half of the peoplewho are formally employed and of the high income earners have proclivity toparticipate in association. In contrast, only 28 per cent of people employed in theinformal sector and only 20 per cent of those with the lowest level of income willhave any associational participation. In Mexico City there is no evidence ofeducation-based stratification (Table B.4).Taking into account both the larger citizenship effect people with low educationalattainment or outside of the labour market obtain from participation, and thestratification of associational participation, how likely are such individuals to beactive citizens, to attempt to mobilise government, or to have direct civil relationsto government? In São Paulo the share of population that has little education butparticipates in associations, and are consequently active citizens is only 6.8 per cent,the share that mobilise government is 6.1 per cent and the share that direct civilrelations 2.7 per cent (Tables B.3 and B.4). In sharp contrast, the share for thepopulation with some higher education and associational participation who areactive, mobilise government and have direct relations is, respectively, 25.3 per cent,23.6 per cent and 6.8 per cent. 44Associational participation appears to produce to a gender gap where none existsin the general population. That is, women and men see a similar increase in activecitizenship in the two cities when they participate in associations, but men are farmore likely to participate in associations and capture this benefit than women. In44 The low-values for direct relation reflect the weakness of the multivariate model.38