How internal political efficacy translates political knowledge into political participation: Evidence from Germany

Abstract

This study presents evidence for the mediation effect of political knowledge through political self-efficacy (i.e. internal political efficacy) in the prediction of political participation. It employs an action theoretic approach—by and large grounded on the Theory of Planned Behaviour—and uses data from the German Longitudinal Election Study to examine whether political knowledge has distinct direct effects on voting, conventional, and/or unconventional political participation. It argues that political knowledge raises internal political efficacy and thereby indirectly increases the chance that a citizen will participate in politics. The results of mediated multiple regression analyses yield evidence that political knowledge indeed translates into internal political efficacy, thus it affects political participation of various kinds indirectly. However, internal political efficacy and intentions to participate politically yield simultaneous direct effects only on conventional political participation. Sequentially mediated effects appear for voting and conventional political participation, with political knowledge being mediated by internal political efficacy and subsequently also by behavioural intentions. The mediation patterns for unconventional political participation are less clear though. The discussion accounts for restrictions of this study and points to questions for answer by future research.

Testing Predictors of Mutual Efficacy

“…The findings provide support for the positive relationship between resources and mutual efficacy (Brady, Verba, and Schlozman, ; Crooks, Jaffe, and Rodriguez, ; Ellis et al., ; Reichert, ; Smets and Van Ham, ). Completing graduate school is associated with higher levels of mutual efficacy compared to individuals who have completed a bachelor's degree.…”

“…For example, research suggests that individuals are more likely to have a stronger sense of perceived efficacy if they have resources such as time and money (Brady, Verba, and Schlozman, ; Smets and Van Ham, ). Further, knowledge in terms of how to create change is associated with higher levels of self‐efficacy and by extension, an increased likelihood that an individual will act (Crooks, Jaffe, and Rodriguez, ; Ellis et al., ; Reichert, ). Based on these findings, it is reasonable to suggest that individuals with higher incomes and education will have a stronger sense of mutual efficacy due to having greater financial means, and the knowledge to create positive change.…”

Promoting or opposing social change: Political orientations, moral convictions and protest intentions

“…In the case of a protest scenario in defense of the status quo, the SIMCA is not totally confirmed as politicized identity is not a robust predictor of protest intentions. This result suggests that, in cases of a protest in support of the status quo, motivation to protest is more related to a sense of anger and group efficacy than to the identification with the protest group (see Reichert, 2016). It can be supposed that individuals do not need to identify with a specific group as the position is the one held by the authority and the political system itself.…”

Partisan heart and/or rational mind? Party identification, political knowledge and electoral turnout

“…Citizens without positive affective ties to political parties need some additional motivation in order to take part in elections. More extensive knowledge enables people to participate in politics (Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1996;Galston, 2001) by making their political attitudes more consistent, and by promoting support for democratic values, trust in the political system (Galston, 2001;Memoli, 2011) or the sense of political efficacy (Memoli, 2011;Reichert, 2016). As others have already shown, a non-partisan (or 'rational') citizen votes for different and more varying reasons than the emotive one, i.e.…”