Why do people become politically active? Current theories and research provide only a partial answer to this question, in that they ignore citizens' motivations and goals for participation. In order to fill this conspicuous gap in the political participation literature, the current study tests a general theory of political motivation. The project examines the motivational underpinnings of political participation, and how those motivations interact with traditionally-studied variables such as education and socioeconomic status to provide a more complete and nuanced understanding of political participation.
Among the reasons people might decide to become active in politics are: 1) to express their values, 2) because they have a self-interested stake in a political outcome, and 3) to express their group identities. The current study tests the impact of these motives on citizens' willingness to become politically active. A nationally representative sample of American adults will be contacted and asked to complete a survey. At the beginning of the survey, respondents read a paragraph that states that people should become involved in politics. However, the content of the arguments in the paragraph will vary. Respondents will be randomly assigned to one of four persuasive argument conditions: 1) a focus on the importance of becoming politically active to express one's values, 2) a focus on the importance of becoming politically active for self-interested reasons, 3) a focus on the importance of becoming politically active to express one's group identity, and 4) no persuasive arguments. They will then be asked questions about the extent to which each of these motives is important to them, and how willing they would be to participate in a series of political activities in the near future, and background questions to assess variables that have been shown in the past to relate to participation (e.g., civic skills, free time, and financial resources). This enables me to test whether each motive has an overall impact on participation (relative to respondents' skills and resources), and whether different motives are more likely to impact willingness to participate in different specific activities.
In addition to providing a more complete understanding of political participation, this project has broader implications for our understanding about the effectiveness of our democracy. A fundamental tenet of democracy is "rule by the people." For a democracy to function properly, the people must participate actively in the political process-to make their voices heard. If only a small proportion of the citizenry chooses to participate, then democratic governance leads to "rule by some of the people," as public officials hear a distorted message about what citizens want. The proposed research helps answer questions about the representativeness of our democracy, as well as questions about how to make it more representative, by showing how abilities and motivations interact to lead to systematic biases in who chooses to be heard.
Because this work helps us understand why people choose to participate in politics, it has important practical benefits to society. In the wake of evidence of declines in voter turnout and civic participation more generally, scholars and educators have developed high profile programs such as Rock the Vote, Kids Voting USA, and state and local civics education curricula, to instill in young people the desire to become politically active adults. The proposed research reveals the best ways to instill such values, by showing the reasons why citizens participate. Armed with this knowledge, programs can be developed to increase political participation to fully realize democratic ideals.
