Direct Democracy and Party Membership: Testing the Role of Political Efficacy

Abstract

The declines in political party memberships along with an increase in direct democracy have drawn numerous scholarly discussions. Previous literature has explored the relationship between direct democracy and party membership, but the role of political efficacy in shaping this relationship has not been systematically examined. In particular, direct democracy can increase political efficacy by enhancing citizens’ civic skills and perceptions about government responsiveness and indirectly raise citizens’ interests in joining political parties. Using the structural equation model, this study shows that political efficacy strongly correlates with direct democracy and plays a significant role in influencing the effect of direct democracy on party membership. Moreover, results from the bootstrap mediation test of examining potential causal inferences suggest that there are distinct differences in the indirect effects of direct democracy mediated by internal efficacy and external efficacy on party membership.

What Does It Take for Immigrants to Join Political Parties?

“…Results, again under the respective condition that the integration factor is zero, demonstrate that internal efficacy has a strong predictive power. The effect of internal efficacy holds for CIO and the autochthonous population and confirms earlier findings in the literature on political participation (Chang, 2023;Craig et al, 1990). External efficacy, by contrast, is significantly associated with party membership for the autochthonous population, but not for CIO.…”

“…Though this finding supports our assumption that factors shaping the likelihood of party membership might not be equal for immigrants and natives, it leaves us with the question of why external efficacy does not matter for party membership of immigrants as it does for natives. The insignificant moderation effect between integration policies and internal efficacy indicates that specific programmes for political learning (Beaumont, 2011;Pasek et al, 2008) and electoral contexts (Chang, 2023;Ikeda et al, 2008) might have a stronger impact on internal efficacy than the broader institutional framework for integration. This article makes a unique contribution in explaining the party membership of immigrants and uncovers the impact the institutional frameworks, both in the country of origin and country of residence, can have on the party activism of immigrants in the country of residence.…”

“…Scholarship has provided robust evidence on the predictive value both internal and external efficacy have on the decision to take political action, including the decision to join a political party (Chang, 2023;Craig et al, 1990). Internal efficacy refers to "beliefs about one's competence to understand and to participate effectively in politics," while external political efficacy is capturing "beliefs about the responsiveness of governmental authorities and institutions to citizen demands" (Craig et al, 1990, pp.…”

“…Political efficacy is developed under the influence of macro-level factors. For example, direct democracy has been shown to have a positive effect on efficacy (Chang, 2023) and the predictive power efficacy has on political participation can be affected by the distinctiveness of the political party system (Ikeda et al, 2008).…”