Macro-Level Effects of Political Participation

Abstract

What are the macro-social effects of mass political participation? This chapter integrates insights from scholarship on voting, civic associations, social movements, public policy, culture, and political institutions to theorize the ways that macro changes may be shaped by mass political participation. Focus is placed on empirical evidence across three main domains: policy, culture, and institutions. Mass political participation exerts influence indirectly on the formation of policy proposals and adoption through the media agenda, interest groups, and elected officials. Voting and other forms of participation in institutional politics can impact political culture by shaping political legitimacy, trust, and public opinion, and generate new modes of political expression. Democratization efforts supported by civil society institutions also work to shape the integration or fragmentation of a polity and the development of state capacity. This chapter concludes by identifying an opportunity for future scholarship to consider the independent and joint effects of different types of mass political participation.