A Cross-National Comparison of the Internal Effects of Participation in Voluntary Organizations

Abstract

This article draws on two recent and largely untapped sources of data to test empirically the Tocquevillian argument about the impact of involvement in civic organizations on individual attitudes and behaviors. Our analysis is based on two related studies – the European Social Survey (ESS) and the US ‘Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy’ (CID) survey – that incorporate innovative and detailed measures about respondents' involvement in voluntary associations in nineteen European countries and in the United States. These surveys provide us not only with rich individual‐level data within a cross‐national comparison, but they also allow us to develop and test a new measure of civic involvement that distinguishes between different levels of participation. After employing our ‘civic involvement index’ in pooled and individual country analyses, we find general support for the Tocquevillian argument. On average, those persons with greater levels of involvement in voluntary organizations also engage in more political acts, have higher life satisfaction and are by and large more trusting of others than those who do not. These findings highlight the general importance of actual involvement as opposed to nominal membership.

Virtual Civil Society: The New Frontier of Social Capital?

“…Face-to-face communications presumably build stronger social capital effects among members through the experience of personal interaction, the reciprocity of such interactions, and the redundancy of contacts. Howard and Gilbert (2008) similarly find that the more frequently a person is involved in voluntary organizations, the greater their generalized trust and activity in politics.…”

The Roles and Impacts of the Third Sector in Europe

“…Closely related to this line of thinking is the emphasis recently placed on the third sector as a major contributor to social capital, to those bonds of trust and reciprocity without which neither democracy nor markets can operate (Putnam 1993(Putnam , 2000. Howard and Gilbert (2008), for example, find empirical support for the Tocquevillian argument, according to which those persons with greater levels of involvement in voluntary organizations also engage in more political acts, have higher life satisfaction and are more trusting of others than those who do not. TSOs also are thought to play a central political role by channeling, articulating and advocating individuals' and groups' interests and values (Habermas 1998) and by participating in policy networks (Rhodes 1997) or advocacy coalitions (Sabatier 1998).…”

Socio-cultural Cleavages in Europe

“…The general meaning behind this indicator is the similar to the previous one; however, the nature of the activity slightly differs. It is more about voluntary "sacrifice" for the community, about individual commitment and engagement for the collective good, about solidarity, and joint efforts for non-political common goals (see: Angermann-Sittermann 2010, Howard-Gilbert 2008, Staetsky-Mohan 2011, Stolle-Howard 2008.…”