VOICE AND EQUALITY

Civic Voluntarism in American Politics

SIDNEY VERBA
KAY LEHMAN SCHLOZMAN
HENRY E. BRADY

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
 Contents

' L Introduction 1

PART I The World of Participation

(2> Defining Political Participation 37

i Political Participatíon: How Much? About What? 49
4. Interpreting Political Activity: A Report from Activis ts 97
5. Recruiting Political Activists 133

PART 11 Participation and Representation

6. Thinking about Participatory Representation 163

7. Who Participares? Economic Circumstances and Needs 186
8. Who Participates? Race, Ethnícity, and Gender 228

PART lil The Civic Voluntarism Model

(9.) Explaining Partícipation: Introductory Considerations 269
;i , Resources for Politics: Time and Money 288
CÜ >Resources for Politics: Civic Skills 304
 PART

III
The Civic Voluntarism Model

Having described how participation works to represent the public,

we turn to explaining why the process works as it <loes. Our
purpose is to show how a series of participatory factors lead to
political activity.
Chapter 9 provides a theoretical introduction, presenting an
explanatory model of political activity-the Civic Voluntarism
Model-that rests on three factors: resources, psychological en
gagement with politics, and access to networks through which
individuals can be recruited to political life. In Chapters 1O and
1l we look closely at the main resources for política! action,
considering what they are, where they come from, and who has
them. Chapter 1O treats money and time. Chapter 11 deals with
civic skills, paying particular attention to the organizational and
communications skills developed in the non-political institurional
domains of adult life.
In Chapter 12 we begin the discussion of the Cívic Voluntarism
Model using the first two participatory factors, resources and
psychological engagement with politics. We test models predicting
overall activity in politics as well as particular kinds of activity.
We demonstrate the importance of resources and political engage
ment, and show that various modes of political participarían have
distinctive configurations of participatory factors. Chapter 13 adds

267
268 Voice and Equality

the third factor-recruitment to politics in institutions-to the

explanation based on resources and engagernent.
Chapter 14 adds a final piece to the model, showing how issu·e
engagemenrs--commitrnents that grow out of having a stake in.. 9
sorne policy outcome or intense views on sorne issue--can raise
levels of activity beyond what would have been expected on the
basis of the participatory factors already considered. We use a$
examples che participatio n generated by having a stake in what Explaining Participation:
the government <l o es by virtue of having children in school od
receivi ng means-tested governmenc benefits, as well as the partid Introductory Considerations
pation generated by having strong opinions on the sub ject o .
abortion.
In Chapter 15 we put together che multiple pieces of the puzzle .
of the participatory process. We trace the process back a genera-"
tion, demonstracing how parental educational leve! and parent.
involvement in politics influence the var io us factors that predís:i , We now embark on one of the central components of our intel
pose an individual to take part in politics. In addirion, we considei : lecrual project- to und erstand what explains participation. We
how educational attainmenc ramifies through the process, affecting; investigare why sorne people take part in politics and others do
almost every factor-for example, in come, política! interest, and not and probe how activiscs choose particular modes of participa
the exercise of adulr civic skills-that explains participation. tion as the vehicles for their involv ement.

Why People Participate: An Overview

of Participatory Factors
.·• We focus on three factors to account for political act1v1ty. We
·• suggested earlier that one helpful way to understand the chree
factors is to invert the usu al question and ask instead why people
do not become politica l activists. Three answers come to mind:
because they catú; beca use they don't want to; or bccause nobody
asked. In other word s, people may be inactive because they lack
resources, because they lack psychological engagement with poli
tics, or because chey are outside of the recruitment netw orks that
bring people into politics. Our analysis of the sources of political
participatio n will focus on all three factors- resources, engage
menc, and recruitment- which we combine into what we !abe] the
Civic Voluntarism Mode l.1

1 . .In con rra sc ro la bels such as rhe SES model" o r the " rational cho ice mode.l," che

269
270 Voice and Equality
Ali three components of the model are importanr. However, ·-
·.·y· place greater emphasis on the resources that facilitare
participatio and on rhe varíety of psychological predispositions
toward politi . rhat we label "political engagement" than on
political recruitmen Recruitment to political activity-being
asked to take part-pla an important role, but participation can,
and <loes, rake place ( the absence of specífic requests for
activity. In contrast, it is har to imagine activity without ar least
a modicum of resources an sorne political engagement. With
respect to resources and engag ment, for several reasons we
place great er stress on the forme' First, we can measure
resources with greater reliability and validi·. than we can
measure the other factors. Second, the causal priori of resources
is easier to establish. Third, a theoretical model base on
resources is more interpretable. And, last, a resource-base model
has significant substantive relevance for American politic, We
shall explícate rhese reasons further as we develop our mod
In our analysis, we consider not only overall participation b
particular political acrs as well. As will become clear, forms · ····..
política] participation vary in terms of rhe explanarory factors cha
matter mosr. In particular, the requirements for activities th .
demand ínputs of money are quite different from the requiremen
for those that demand inputs of time. · ; and the constrained choices they make about their lives-affect
RESOURCES
The literature on part1c1pation refers ro a heterogeneous se·t
factors-ranging from such aspects of social position as a hi
leve! of education or income to such psychological predjspositio
as a sense of political efficacy or group solidarity-as resources f¡ ,
political activity. In the Civic Voluntarism Model, we define f
sources more concretely and treat their relationship to particip·:
tion more comprehensively, probing their origins and investiga ti
how they operare to facilitare participation.2 Our approach disti
Civic Vo!untarism Model is not very descriptivc. Howeve r, we delibcrare!y chose an ap
lation that is non -resrricriv e in arder to accommodate the range of facrors that we b
to bear 011 the explanation of participation.
2. Our approach has srrong affinitics with resource mobilization theory in socio) .
However, while we concentrare upan rhe resour ces available to individual s, the focu·s . socio!
ogical .resource mobilizat ion theo ry is up on social moveme nt organizations. St,ill . ,
Explaining Parricipation 271
guishes between the social positions from which resources de-
• rive-for instance; the respondent's family background or occupa-
•tion-and the resources themselves. This allows a focus on the
.· processes by which resources are acquired in the context of social
positions.
We emphasize three kinds of resources: time, money, and civic
skills. Many forms of polirical activity-campaign work, informal
.efforts to solve community problems, even voting-require time.
\ Conrriburions to candidates or política) causes, a mode of activism
\ that has grown in relative importance in recent decades,
obviously demand money. Finally, the citizen who possesses the
requisite organizatíonal and communications capacities-what we
call civic skills-will find it less daunting to take part. Indeed,
when inputs of time and money are coupled ro civic kills, citizens
become not only more likely to participare bur also more likely to
be effective
.w hen they do.
We trace the origin of these resources back to the fundamental
· involvements of individuals in májor social institutions. Experi-
ences in the family, at school, and in the workplace and citizens'
_ voluntary affiliations with non-política! associations and religious
.. institutions-a function of their socially structured circumstances
the srockpile of time, money, and civic skills available for politics.
Depending on the nature of the insritutions and the nature and
extent of a citi zen's involvement with them , families, schools,
jobs, voluntary associations, and churches provide differential
amounts of each of the three resources. Since the resources of time,
money,
. s díscussion of the na cure of che relevant resour ces and its emphasis upon che rol e of
.f So mces in movemenc success, resource mobilizacion rheor y is very relevant ro our con
·5 ms. Charles Tilly suggests rhat land, labor, capital, and tec hnical experrise are fundamen
tal r sources to movem ents in Frorn Mobilization to Revolution ( Reading , Mass.: Addison
. esley, 1978), p. 69. John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald refer to rime and money and to
"skil!s in lo bbying, acco un ting, and fund raisi ng" in " Resource Mobilization and Social
Movcmenrs: A Parcial Theory," American Sociologica/ Review 82 (19 77 ): 1224 and 123 4. In
the literat ure on political participation, resources are imp lic it in the "soc io ccono mic"
:mode l of Sidney Verba and Norman H. Nie in Participatio11 in America: Po litical Dernoc
tªc)• ond Social Equality { New Yor k: Harper and Row, 1972). However, Verba and Nie
·· either explain whar resour ces are involved and how they work to enhan ce par rici patio n
or delineate clearly betw een resources and other factors- for example, políti ca! efficacy
r inte resr- rhat intervene betwcen socioe conomic position and political activiry.
272 Voice and Equality
and skills are differentially useful for various forms of activity,
explanation of political activity that is based on resources
us to link basic life circumstances and choices to pattems
political activity.
ENGAGEMENT
The variety of psychological predispositions that we group und
the rubric of engagement is the second component of the Civ
Voluntarism Model. Measures of psychological engagement wí ..
politics have played a central role in theories of political partic;
pation. Scholars have emphasized such characteristics as the inte.r:
est in politics that makes individuals want to take part; the sensi
of political efficacy that provídes the subjective feeling that th
can rnake a difference when they do; the civic values that impl
that participation will be accompanied by the psychic gratificatio
of having fulfilled a duty; the group consciousness that endo ··
individuals wíth a sense that their fate is linked to that of othe
identification with a political party; and commitment to speci
policies that individuals would like to see implemented3.
f stimuli externa! to the individual, too many experiences, too
As with resources, we shall show the way in which these vari ou;
indicators of engagement relate to the non-política! involvementi
of individuals-beginning with early experiences at home and aaj.
school and continuing imo adult life. And, as with resources, w#
shall investigate how various measures of engagernent are diffef¿
entially relevant depending upon the particular mode of political;
activity.
RECRUITMENT ··.•·
t
As shown in Chapter 5, requests for participation that come
indíviduals at work, in church, or in organizatíons-especiallf
those that come from friends, relatives, or acquaintanc es- ofte ;
3. Far descriprions of tbese various measures and bow they are used in the lirera rure(
see, among others, Paul R. Abramson, Political Attitudes in America: Formation and :
Change (S;n Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1983), p. 135; Steven Earl Bennm, Apathy in:
America, 1960-1984: Causes and Consequences of Citizen Political Indifference (Dobbs
Ferry, N.Y.: Transnational .Publisher s, 1986 ); and Lester W. Milbrath and M. L. Goel/
Politica/ Participation: Ho w and Why Do People Get Involved in Politics?, 2nd ed. (Chi·i
cago: Rand McNally, 'J 977).
Explaining Participation 273
Iead to participation. Those who are asked in this way might have
intended to act anyway, but the request was the triggering factor.
·• Scholars have demonstrated the role of various institutions in
mobilizing cítizens to política! action. In particular, they have
.•.•. remarked upon party efforts to get out the vo te.4 However, they
.•· have also paid attention to the role of religious institutions in
··• mobilizing activity: both the Black churches and, more recently,
> White conservative Protestant churches.5 Our data are unusual in
·· that, as we have already seen in Chapter 5, we investigare the
phenomenon across a variety of activities ín severa! institutional
settings and relate the characteristics of the respondent to the
characteristics of the person making the request. We incorporate
the attempts to recruit activists into our rnodei of participation.
Resources, Engagement, and Recruitment as Explanations
No explanation of political activity will ever be complete. As
with any attempt to explain human be"havior, there are too many
indi vidual social and psychological characteristics, too many
many acci dental events to permit us ever to explain fully the
ways citizens take part in politics. Hence, we must satisfice,
seeking an expla-
4. Sce, among orbers, Robert Huckfeldt and John Sprague, "Political Parties and Elec
toral Mobilization: Politica .1 Strucrure, Social Structure, and tbe Party Canvass," American
Political Science Review 86 (1992): 70-86; and Steven J. Roscnsrone and John Mark
Hansen, M obilization, Participation, and Democracy in America (New York: Macmillan,
1993 ), chap . 6. Cross-nationa l studies are especially belpful in demonstrating the role of
parries. See, for example, Sidney Verba, Norman H. Nie, and Jae-On Kim, Partici/Jation
. and Política/ Equality: A Se11en-Nation Comparison (Cambridge: Cambridge University
·: Press, 1978); and G. Bingham Powell, "American Voter Turnout in Comparative Perspec
tive," American Political Science Review 80 (1986): 17- 43.
5. Analyscs tbat demonsrrate rhe mobilizing role of churches include C. Eric Lincoln
and Lawrence H. Mamiya, The Black Church in the A frican-American Experience (Dur
ham, N.C.: Duke University Pres s, 1990); Kenneth D. Wald, Religion and Politics in the
1 United States, 2nd ed. {Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1992); Clyde Wilcox, God's Warriors:
. : The Christian Right in Twentieth Century America (Balrimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1992); Kennerh D. Wald, Lyman A. Kel!stedr, and David C. Leege, "Church lnvolve
menr in Political Behavior," in David C. Leege and Lyman A. Kellstedt, eds., Rediscovering
the Re/igious Factor in American Politics (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1993), chap. 6;
· and A!lan D. Hertz ke, Echoes of Discontent: Jesse ]ackson, Pat Robertson ., and the Resur
gence o( Populism (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1993).
274 Voice and Equality
Explaining Partícipatíon 275

nacion that uses a limired a set of variables to account foras muq citizens wíth a means of communicating ínformation about their
as possible-in short, an explanarion that is simultaneously po ·
preferences ro those who govern and generating pressure to com
erful and parsimonious. However, we seek more than explanato ply. The nature of that voice depends on the representativeness of
power. The social sciences are replete with models that are stati
the activists-whether and in what ways they differ from the
tically powerful, but methodologically unsound or substantive / population at large. To the extent rhat those differe nces hew to
trivial. Thus, we are concerned that any model we propose shouf .•. the fault lines of política!cleavage, our explanation gains political
be based on explanatory factors chat are measurable, causall .· resonance. If the factors that have an impact on the propensity of
ordered, theoretically interpretable and interesting , and releva
· .individuals to cake pare in politics are also related to the funda
to politics. Let us introduce each of these criteria.
mental divisions that underlíe American politics, not only do we
Obviously, no empírica! study, ours included, is sound if iti
improve our ability to predice activity but wc enrich our under
not based on measurable factors. We shall show that che explari
standing of the way in which particípation shapes public
tory factors included in our model of política! actívity are reliab
outcomes in America. Thus, we will discuss both the factors that
(that is, they can be measured with a good <leal of confidence)
predispose citizens to be active and the way in which the
well as valid (that is, chey measure what we think they measure
distribution of chese factors affects che ability of polítically
The faccors we use to explain political activity should be cau
relevant groups defined by, for example, their race or income to
al/y prior to that activity. Causal direction is usually difficult
add theír voices to the American política! debate.
identify in the social sciences. Since our analysis is based on ero{
We can evaluate the triad of explanatory factors on the basis of
sectional data, this is a particular problem for us. Although
these críteria-measurement, direction of causality, theoretícal in
shall make causal inferences, we shall attempt to be as clear
tcrpreta bílity and interest, and política! relevance. The criteria all
possible about the basis for any inference and the uncertain
lead us in the direction of making resources the centerpieccof our
surrounding it.
explanatory model.
We also seek explanatory factors that are theoretically interpre
. able and substantively interesting. That a variable generates
MEASUREMENT
robu· coefficients in predíctive equations is insufficient. We seek
Political motivations, such as interese in politics or a sense of
facto·•· for which the impact on participation is understandable
efficacy or group consciousness, are more dífficult than either
within t framework of sorne more general model or theory of
resources or rccruitmcnt to measure in a reliableand valid
what lea to participation. We want, in other words, to know why
manner. We depend- as survey rescarchers must-on rhe answers
a paf ticular factor operares as it <loes. Furthermore, we prefer
we re ceive to questions. Reports of motivations are difficult to
explana'. tory factors that tell us somethíng interesting about
compare reliably across individuals. The measurement of such
participation' lnteresting factors tend to be ones that are less
resources as money, time, and skills rests on relatively concrete,
proximate to tha which is to be explained: it is, for instance, more
objective ques tions. With respect to money, we asked about both
interesting ( explain an individual's vote on the basis of econo
total family income from all sources and che respondent's own
mic circum stances or family background than on the basis of
earnings. In terms of time, we asked about the number of hours
candidat preference just before entering the voting booth. As we
devoted to such activities as paid work, necessary tasks at home,
shall see; not all powerful predictors of participation are terribly
and sleep. Although we know that there is error in these
ínterestin •
measurcs, the metrics used, dollars and hours, are unlikely to vary
Fínally, we seek an explanation that is relevantto real issues 6 .
in meaning from respondent to respondent . Questions about skills
American politics. As we have argued, política! participation mat
are factual as well. We asked about actual experíences of
ters because it constitutes che voice of the people: it provide ..
exercising specific
276 Voicc and Equality
skills-for example, making a public presentation or organizin'
meeting-rather than abouc subjective assessments of respondé
capacities.
Similarly, the measures of recruitment are fairly clear and c
crete. As discussed in Chapter 5, we asked at separare points·
the interview about mobilization attempts in three institutio
settings---on the job, in church, in organizations. These measu
are relatively unambiguous in meaning, and respondenrs had 1· i
difficulty in answering these questions or in describing the s
characteristics of those making requests. ;;
When it comes to the various indicators of political engagem
it is less clear just what is being measured. We know, more or 1
what it means when a respondent has a salary of a particular si
has given a speech or presentation at work thus exercising a ci , skill,
or has been asked by a friend to go to a protest. We are l clear what it
means when a respondent indicates being "intere·.·.. in politics and
public affairs" or agrees that "people like me h no say over
what the government does."6 Survey researchers t we are, we use
measures of engagement such as political intei: and efficacy, but
we try to rest our argum enr on measures t .· have clearer face
meaning and greater measurement solidity.
DIRECTION OF CAUSALITY / ;institutions apart from and in advance of choices to take part po
Direction of causality, always a problem in the social sciences/
particularly troublesome when it comes to both political engag
mene and recruitment. Political interest and a sense of politié:
efficacy probably lead to political activity but, presumably, parti .·
pating in politics also enhances political interest and
cultiva( feelings of political efficacy. Similarly, the direction of
causalitY
problematic with respect to requests for política! activity. Th ii
particularly obvious in the case of mail and phone solicitations f
6. A part icula rly vexing problem is whether effica cy is a propcn y o f t hc
responden·t of the syst em: that is, do responses to ef6cacy qu esrions tell us something
abo u t the
a pa rt icula r individu al is constit ut ed psychologically or somerhing a bour the probabil"
that the political sysrem will be respon siv e ? T he distinct io n between interna! and exte :.
efficacy helps to short- círcuit chis dilemm but does no t eli minare all of the ambiguities
meaning. For a discussion o.f the li teratu re on int erna! and externa! efficacy, sec Abrams .
Political Attitude s in America, chap. S .
.Explaining Participation 277
, olitical contributions. The existence of an industry dedicated to
. is kind of fund raising attests to the fact that these impersonal
ppeals for financia! support are sufficiently likely to bear fruir to
ustify the enterprise. However, ir is well known that the quickest
y,ay to generare a mailbox foil of additional solicitations is to
¡espond favorably to the first one. Since fund raising is expensive ,
professionals in the field are careful to targer likely prospecrs. Who
·s more likely to say yes toan appeal for money than a past donor?
' he same principie obtains for appeals made through personal,
¡;ather than electronic, networks. Surely activity results from re-
4 uests for activity: when asked, especially when asked by a friend,
people engage in political acts that they might not orherwise have
under taken . However, those who ask others to take part in politics
have no incentive to waste their efforts on unlikely prospects. Once
.again, who is more likely to assent than a former panicipant?
}> In contrast, we are more comfortable inferring causal priority
' hen it comes to a resource-centered explanation, for the institu
tional involvements out of which citizens acquire resou.rces are,
we believe, antecedent to política! activity. In the absence of actual
life histories collected over respo ndents ' lifetimes, we cannot be
absolutely certain that individuals make decisions about family,
\ vork, organizational involvements, or affiliations with religious
litically. However, these seem to be plausible assumptions. Obvi
ously, family background and early experiences in school, critica!
in their implications both for the development of resources for
politics and far the future institutional commitments that permit
:.the further enhancement of political resources, precede adult po
litical activity. Even decisions about adult institutional involve
ments-the nature, direction, and extent of commitment to the
workplace, religious institutions, or non-political organizations
would seem to be largely independent of political inclinations.
They do not derive from voluntary political activity or, even, from
anticipation of voluntary political activity.7
7. Huckfeldt and Sprague ta ke a similar posirion in th eir careful review óf the li t erat ure
. on contextual cffecrs in pol itics, They express skepcicism abou c " simp le versio ns of ch e
;\ self-seleccio n argum enr. To wh at extent do pcople choosc their location in the social
278 Voice and Equality
It might be objected that, contrary to this line of reasoning, there
are well-known-albeit infrequent--examples in which someone
chose a line of work, married into a politically prominent family,
or even worshipped in a particular church a che result of political
ambitions. In these cases che purported causal direction is reversed,
with politics dictating adule non-political af.filiations. However, in
all the cases of which we know, the political motivation is to run
for office or to have a career in publíc life rather than to enha nc.e
opportunities as a volunteer political activist. Although it is surely .
possible for an aspiring political parcicipant to make life choices
on the basis of a desire for expanded volunteer opportunities, we
believe that it would be a rare occurrence. . cipare in politics or is interest ed in politics is ufficiently proximace
Af:filiations with voluntary a ociations present a specíal chal-·
lenge ro chis perspective. Involvements in organizations-which
are much more likely than, say, church affiliations to be fluid-are
often inspired by political concern . For this reason, when
discuss ing the developmem of resource far politics in non-
política! con texts, we confine our purview to involveme nts in
organizations that do not take stands on public issue .8 This
permits us to make the assumption of causal priority even for
volumary organizatio ns:· There is a final aspect to the problem
of causal inference that
we should consider: the possibility that there is sorne omitted
variable that explains the i:elationship between experiences in non:.
política! settings and political activity. One possible omitted vari·
able might be a " taste" for social activities that affects ali the·
measures we have, both rhe independent measures of involvement
in non-political institutions and the dependent variable of political
activity. However, as we shall see, it is not simply being affiliated- ·
having a job, joining an organizat io n, or attending religious serv-
scructure? How man y of us rcally chao e o ur workplace co lleagues, o ur coreligionists, our .
neighbor s? To th e extent tbat we are able to excrcise co ntro l o ver o ur surroundings, do wc
use politica l ccite ria in exerci ing such cboi e? O r do we choo e a joh becausc ir pays well?
A c hurch because our parents raised us in it? And then we cake the poliric s tl1at acco mpanies
the choic e. Robert Hur kfeldt and John Sprague, "Ci t izens, Comexrs, and Polirics, " in
J>o lit ical Science: The Srate o f the Discipline, ed. Ada W, Finifter (W ashington, D.C.: Th .
Amer ican Polirical Scicnce Associa tion , 1993), p. 294. · ..
8. See Chapter 3 for a discussion of our defini tions of political and non-politic ií.l
or ganizations.
Explaining Participa tion 279
ices-thar matters far political participation bue how actively en
gaged the individual is in each sercing. Furthermore, apart from
the accivicy of the individual, institution differ in their capacity
ro incubate the skills thar facilitare political participation. For
example, we shall demonstrate that it matters far política! partici
parion what kind of church one attends-a choice that is relacively
unlikely ro reflecta generalized ta ce for involvement.
THEORETICAL INTERPRETAB!LJTY AND INTEREST
Most measures of political engagement are not very distant frorn
political participation. Asking whether someone feels able to parti
to that which is to be explained, activit y, that any relationship
becomes less interesting theoretically. In contrast, the resource of
time, money, and skills on which we focus-and che non-política!
domain in which they are nurcured-are concept ually quite dif ferent
from political activity. This linking across domains- fr om the
non-política! realms of everyday life to the political-is oneof che
hallmarks of our appro ach. Sínce the in tirutions on which we
concentrare ai:e the most fundamenta] ones to which individuals
become connected as they move through the ordinary stages of
life, we believe we have an explanato ry model of wide generality
that is deeply grounded in the subs tance of people's lives. In
addition, as we shall see shor rly when we connect our analysis of
resources ro two of rhe principal models of political activity, ra
cional actor theory and the socioeconomic model, resources pro
vide a theoretically interpretable relationship between che explana
tory and dependent variables.
POLJTICAL RELEVANCE
A reso urce-cemered explanation also tel.ls us a good deal about
the nature of contemporary American politic . A central concern
in the study of participation i tbe extent to which disparities in
· participation are consonant with group differences in política!
preferences or needs. We have a!ready seen that many groups rhat
.. matter for politics in America- gro ups based on, for examp.le,
class, race, ethnicity, or receipt of means -tested government bene-

280 Voice and Equality
fits-differ substantially in their rates of activity. They l o in their
access to the resources that facilitate political acvt1 1.ty T
most obvious example of a resource that is at the sa.me time the
ba for differential political preferences and need '.s money. Tho.
with high incomes command an important part1c1patory
resourc they also want and need different things f m :hegov r-
ment. _T complex role of money-as a factor fac1htatmg
pohtICal_ act1 , and asa politically relevant resource-serves as
a Ie1tmotif of th
analysis.
EVALUATING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY . plications. Since the predictor variables in the SES model are
Finally, resources matter from a nor ative erspecnve_- A
issue in normative democratic theory 1s the mterpretat10n of
litical inactivity, especially when there are differences in partiá
tion across groups with conflicting political needs and p eferen5
How we evaluate political inactivity may depend upon 1ts sou.1·
if individuals are not involved in politics because they do not (.
or because they prefer to devote themselves to prívate rather
public pursuits, then we are apt to be less c ncerned about
parities in participation than if their lack_ of mvolv ment er1 from
resource constraints that make ít d1fficult or 1mposs 1ble . take
part in política! life even if they are moti vated to dos o. <
Resources, Rational Choice, and the Socioeconomic M
We can elaborate upon the theoretical significance of :he e_s o
component of the Civic Voluntarism Model b _rlacmg it m many studies in which this result is replicate d.
context of two important approaches to poht1cal act1v1ty,
socioeconomic, or SES, model and the rational ac:or appro
The strengths of the SES model are in its empmcalp owe \
predict activity and in the political rele:a ce of th groupsu
which the analvsis is based. However, lt 1s theoret1cally de .... in
failing to spe ify che mechanism that links ?ocioeconomic s.•·t•·
to political participation. In contrast, the ational actor appro
is theoretically rich but weak in its pred1ct1ve power and relev<l
for politics. Our model seeks to draw on the merits of each
compensating for its shortcomings.
Explaining Participation 281
RESOURCES AND THE SES MODEL
The central tenet of the SES model is that people of higher socio
economic status-those with higher educatíon, higher incorne, and
higher-status jobs-are more active in politics. As mentioned, the
sources of its strength are two-fold: it is empirically pow er fu l, and
it is polítically relevant. SES has been found in rnany contexts to
be a powerful predictor of political activity. As Milbrath and Goel
put it, "No matter how class is measured, studies consistently
show that higher class person s are more likely to partícipate in
politics than lower class persons ... This proposition has been
confirmed in nurnerous countries."9 Moreover, the analysis of
política] activity impl.icit in the SES model is rich with political irn
significant components of the stratification system in any society,
the SES model is also a model of política! inequ ality predicting
participatory disparities across politically relevant groups-that is,
groups that have differing preferences and needs for governmental
action and, therefore, that are in political conflict with one an
··. other.
However, the SES model is weak in its theoretical underpin
. .• nings. It fails to provide a coherent rationale for the connection
: between the explanatory socioeconomic variables and partic ipa
.• tion. Numerous intervening factors are invoked- resources, norms,
·.stake in the outcome, psychological involvement in politics, greater '.
o pportunities, favorable legal status, and so forth. But there is no
clearly specified mechanism lin king social statuses to activity.10 By
. 9. Milbr Jt h a nd Goel, Political l'articipation, p. 92 (emphasis in orig inal). Th ey cite
10. Sce Milbrath and Goc!, Political Parti cipation , chap. 4; and M. Margaret Conway,
Po /iti a1 l Participatiorr in t he Un ited States, 2nd ed. (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1991),
· p. 21- 27. ln Participation in America (p. 133), Verba ami Nie ind icate a variety of
factors hat link socioeconomic status with activity, resour ces such as time, money, skills,
and nowledge- rhe reso urccs oo which we focus-as well as subjecrive characteris tics like
cacy: "What is it t hat links higher socioeconomic status with politica l participation? As
icated , man y con nective link s have been su ggested. Sorne depend on rhe social
cnviron nt of uppc r-starns citizens: They are more likely to be members of organizario
ns, aod
y are likely ro be surroundcd by orhers who are parricipating. Sorne coonecting lin ks
end on the availa biliry of resources and skills: Upper-starus citizens have the time, che
ney, and the knowledge to be effective in politics. Other connecting links depend on the
cbological character istics of upper-status citizens: They are more likely to be concemed

282 Voice and Equality
moving from socioeconomic status to esources-which are at
higher leve! of abstracrion and generahty-we are able to defi
more fully the oature of the connection between SES andac t iv i .
As we shallse e, resources link backward to SES and forward·
political acrivity. The th e reso rces f money, time, and
skills vary in their associanon w1th SES. Money and so e km of
civic skills are dosely relared to SES; they are moreava 1la b le .
rhose in higher socioeconomic positions. Time and other ci
skills are less stratified by socioeconomic status. The three
sources also vary in their forward link to partícipation: eacK
more useful far sorne kinds of activities than for others. By shd
ing how resources that are diff rentially availabl .º º theb_ s i ( .
socioeconomic status affect vanous modes of pohttcal act1v1ty, .
explain not only why sorne individuals are more ac ive and oth
less but also why certain kinds of people are more hkely to eng
in ;articular participatory acts. The _r sult is.ª. fuller andm
complex picmre of the sources of poh tic_ al ct1v1_ty. .
A resource-centered explanation of pohucal act1V1ty, then,
hances che SES model by providíng an interpretation of che .
rhat model works. Resources explain why people of higher e cation
or income or occupation are, in general, moreac t ive / resource-
centered explanation, however, does more thanim p ro .
upan the SES explanation of política! activity. lt goes beyondt
SES model to encompass other factors not linked to SES. The nC
model provides an explanation of many of the deviations from
predictions of che SES model by isolating other social char
teristics, not part of the bundle of characteristics associatedw SES,
that generare parricipatory resources. ._ _ .
Our prime example involves the role of rehg1on. Rehg10us
stitutions are the source of significant civic skills which, int ,,
foster political activity. The acquisition of such civic skills isn o.
function of SES but depends on frequency of church attenda
w it h g ene ral p o l i tica l prohlems, and they are mor e likel y to feel efficacious." •
In Who Votes ? ( Ne w Hav en: Yale Univer si ty Press, 1980), Ra ymond E.Wol figne r
. .osts, political parriciparion seems able to provide substantial and
Steven J. Rose ns t0ne unp ack SES into iis constituent parts na d dcm ons tra tc t ha
t ' e duca coi n,ra th er tl,an income or occupati on, that bas co nseq ucnce s for vo
ring. Howe
they dono t explain why ed ucation has an impact on tumout.
Explaining Participation 283
and the denomination of the church one attends. As we shall see,
individuals wirh low SES may acquire civic skílls if they atrend
church-and if the church is che right denomination. Conversely,
jndivid uals who are otherwise well endowed with resources be
t· caus e of their high socioeconomic status will be lower in civic
skills if they do not attend church regularly-or if the church they
attend is the wrong denomination . Frequency of church atten ance
and the kind of church one attends are, in turn, closely
·· onnected to race and ethnicity. This allows us to provide an
e:xplanation of differences in política! activity across race and
'.ethnic lines. In this manner, a reso urce-centered model provides a
;more solid theoretical foundation for the robust predictions and
politica lly relevant findings of che SES mod el. And ir accounts as
well for sorne of the deviarions from what the SES model would
predict.
RESOURCES AND RATIONAL CHOJCE
A model of political acrivity based on resources <loes jusr rhe
, o pposite for rational actor theory: lt provides greater empírica!
grounding and política! relevance to a model of political activity
that is more satisfying for its theoretical elegance than for its
predictive power or its relevance to politics. Although rational actor
theories have clearly specified how and why indivíduals ight
decide to participare in politics in order to pursue their d f i
r terest, these theories have done a very poor job of predicting
oltt1cal participation. Rational actor theory falls short in predict- 1g
how much política! activity there will be, and ir fa1ls short in
· redicting who will take part.
The faílure to predict the volume of activity constitutes the basic
aradox of participation. According to che theory, few should
articipate given the costs and the benefits, but many do. In
· hapter 4, we considered this paradox by examining rhe benefits
. ar people mention in discussing their participation. We con-
uded that activisrs can and do cite a multitude of benefits-rnost
f which go substantially beyond self-interest narrowly defined.
ar from being unable to deliver benefits commensurate with its
jgnificant benefits. Once the range of selective benefits is, as it

284 Voice and Equality
must be enlarged to encompass such psychic benefits as the satis
faction ;ttendant to doing one's civic duty, political participatio
delivers more rhan enough benefits to satisfy any rational actor;
The theory, however, becomes almost unfalsifiable once we enlarg
the set of benefits and, thus, loses its analytical bite. ,.
Furthermore, even if the expansion of the meaning of bene
to embrace such a wide range is acceptable as a means of mak1
the theory predictive, rational choice approaches f il to predi
who will participare. The theory is, for insta ce, amb1guous _abo
how SES is related to participation. Accordmg to one vers1on
the theory, people of high SES should be less active because th
have the education and intellectual sophistication to comprehen
the free-rider problem and because their high salar_ies rai e th
opportunity cost of participation. 11 ow ver pl s1bl th_1sa
proach, the strongest empirical regulanty tor part1c'.pat1on 1s ht •
rhose with high levels of SES, who are not otherw1se known f
particular irrationality in the c nduct of th ir lives, are the mo
Jikely to be active. Another vers10n of the rat10nal actor appr_oac
dating back at least to Anthony Downs,12 holds that.lower mf ;.
mation and transaction costs for the well educaced 1mply that .
will be easier for chem to take part in politics. This approach ha
the virtue of fitting the facts bur seems somewhat post hoc. Littlt
has been done to verify whether the mechanism specified operate
in the posited manner.
By moving beyond an exclusive focus on bencfits and payin .
. a:
serious attention to the costs in rhe participatíon calculus,a re7
source explanation of participation makes rational actor theory
more predictive of the amount and source of participa:ion.!her4
no
are real costs to participation. Money given to a cand1date 1S
available for other purposes; time devoted to an informal commu
nity effort is time away from work, family, recreation, or sl epe,
1
11. See W. Mark Crain and Thomas H. Deaton, "A Note on Political Participation, ?
Consumption Beh,wior," Public Choice 32 (W inter 1977): 131-1,35. . " \
12. Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper, 19:i7),
chap. 14. . . · · d
13. When expended, money and time represent real costs smce they are d1m1mshe w
used. Civic skills are more ambiguous. The stock of skills may acrnally mcrease thro
their use. They are related to coses in thar they reduce rhe effort neede d for political acuvi
Explaining .Participation 285
The Civic Voluntarism Model highlights the resources necessary
to bear the costs of various kinds of activity and the way in which
a given configuration of resources enhances, or places constraints
on, the ability to participare in polit ics.14
In focusing on resources, the Civic Voluntarism Model applies
to politics an important variant of rational choice theory that is
less commonly applied to economics and rarely applied to
politics. The standard model of economic behavior assumes
stable prefer ences, maxímizing behavior, and budget constraints-
that is, lim ited resources such as time, money, and skills-with the
emphasis on the preferences. As we have noted, students of
political partici pation have also emphasized the preference
aspect of the model that is, the benefits accruing from the
activity-with less than satísfying results. By focusing on
rcsources, we follow an alterna tive approach. The Chicago
School of Economics has shown how a powerful theory of choice
can be built, not upon restrictions on che motives for choice, but
on the budget constraints on resources that limit choice.15 In this
approach, regardless of preferences even random and
idiosyncratic preferences-differential resource
For a d is cussion of cosrs as an explanation for activity, see Angus Deaton and John
Mnellbauer, Economics and Cortsttmer Beha11ior (Ca m bridge: Cambridge University Prcss,
1980), chap. l.
14. Onr characterizarion of racional actor rheory <loes nor encompass an irnportant
strand: the role of stra tegic elites in mobilizing citizens to political action, an important
component of models of soc ial movernents. See, for exarnple, Dennis Chong, Collecti11e
Action arid the Civil Rights Movement (C hicago: Universiry of Chicago Press, 1991 ); and
Doug McAdam, Política/ Process and the Development of Black lnsttrgency: 1930-.1970
{Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982 ) . See also thc rnodel of the cbb and flow of
citizen involvement in relation ro par ticu la r issues or in rhe context of electoral contests in
, Rosenstone and Hansen , Mobilizatúm, Part icipation , and Demo c.racy.
15. The "new consurner rh.eory" takes imo account constraints on time as well as money,
the production of cornmodities by rhe househo ld, ami investment in human capital. In this
theory, indiv idu al behaviors are constrained by income, time, and bousehold production
capabiliries. Household procl uctio n functions vary frorn person to person depcnding upon
accumu la ted skills, but producrion capabilitics can be improved through che investment of
time and goods in human capital. Sce Gary S. Becker, Human Capital: A Theoretical and
Empif'ical Anolysis, with Special Reference to Education, 2nd ed. (New York: National
Bureau of Econornic Research, 1975 ); Becker, "A Theory of rhe AIJocation of Time,"
. Economic J oum al 75 (1965): 493-517; Roben T. Michael, " Ed11cation in Noornarket
:,roductioo," Journal o( Political Ewnomy 81 (1 973 ): 3 06- 327; and Michael and Becker,
On the New Theory of Consumer Behavior," Swedish ]or,rnal of Ec onom ics 7.5 (1973): 378-
396.
286 Voíce and Equality Explaining Partitiparion 287

constraints will result in predictable differences in behavior1.6
In their work on consumer theory, Angus Deaton and John
MuelfY bauer state this posítion clearly:
Consumer behavior is frequendy presented in terms of preferences,
on the one hand, and possibilities on the other. The emphasis in the
discussion is commonly placed on preferences, on the axioms of
choice, on utility functions and thcir propcrties. Thc specification of
which choices are actually available is given a secondary place,
and, frequently, only very simple possibilities are considered. . . .
We begin, however, wirh rhe limits to choice rarher rhan the choices
rhemselves. Unlike preferences, the opportuniries for choice are
often directly obs erva ble so thar, to the extent that variation in
behavior can be traced to variarions in opportunities, we have a
straightforward and objecriveexplanation of observed phenomena.
lt is our view that much can be so explained and that the part played
by preferences in determining behavior rends to be overestimated.17
Substituting "political behavior" for "consumer behavior" neatlyi
surnrnarizes our position. That Deaton and Muellbauer focus ori
"the limírs to choice" which are "often directly observable" rather
than on preferences is the economic parallel to our emphasis or(
resources rather rhan on bencfits. Because preferences are, by
their/ very nature, subjective and, therefore, difficult to measure, it
is / much easier, and more productive, to base an explanation of
política! participation on differences in resources .
Not only does the consumer theory associated with the Chicago
School demonstrate the importance of resource constraint s, but it:
shows how different resource constraints operare in different cir
cumstances.18 Similarly, by analyzing the way in which multipl·e·.··
resources are disrributed across the population, we are able to
probe the ímplications of resour ce constraints for the ability ro
bear the costs of different kinds of participation. By considering
civic skills, we are able to understand why transaction and infor
mation coses might be lower for those of higher socioeconomic
status. lncorporating income and free time as well helps to explain
why parcicipants might choose modes of activity that require
inputs of time as opposed to inputs of money. Thus, by focusing
on coses as well as benefits, a resomce approach retains the as
sumption of rational choice but provides a more complete expla
nation of political activity. In this way, we do not contradict the
calculus of rational choice; instead we build upon its basic logic
to gain additíonal empírica! insights.
In sum, the resource component of the Civic Voluntarisrn
Model links both rational choice theory and the socioeconomic
approach to política! activity. Stratification theories suggest that
che distri bution of class and status are fundamental featmes of
any society and often determine íts politics. A resource-centered
explanacion of política! participation shows how class and status
stratification shape individual resources to constrain individual
choices about political participation.
The task of the next few chapters is to develop and test the
Civic Voluntarism Model of political participation. We consider
each of the components- resources, engagement, and recruitrnent-
and demonstrate how they are related both to overall political
partici pation and to particular modes of activity. We also trace
their origins back to involvements with the major non-polít ica!
institu tions of American society: the family, school, workplace,
church, and non-política] organizations. Taken togethcr, the
various fac rors in the Civic Voluntarism Model offer a powerful
and new explanation of policical pa rticipatío n.

16. This is the conclusion in Gar y Becker' s " lrrational Beltavior and Economic Theory,
journal of Política/ Econom y 70 /1970): 1- 13. He shows that the main implication of the
trad it ional tbeory, '' that market demand curves are negatively ind ined- can also be
de rived from a wide variecy of irrational behavior." In his disc ussio n of rcvealcdprcferences,
Paul Samuclson has srressed that tht real power of the approach comes from the budget
co nstrainr. See his Foundati o11s of Economic Ana / ysis (Camb ridge, Ma ss.: Ha rvard Uni·
versity Press, 194 7).
17. Deamn and Mucllbaucr, Eco11o mic s and Cons11111er Behavior, p. 1 (emphasis in
original).
18. Michael and Becker, ''On rhe New Theory of Consumer Bchavior."

10
Resources for Politics:
Time and Money
Resources are the most critica! compon ent of the Civic Volnnta
rism Model. In this chapter and the next, we define what we mean
by resources and describe how we measure them. In addition, we
put empirical flesh on our understanding by pursuing severa!
themes. We show how the resources on which we focus-money,
time, and civic skills-vary in their availability to politically
relevant group s defined by their income, education, occupation,
race or ethnic ity, gender, and religion. This is an important
enterprise because, in the chapters that follow, the stratification of
resources alo ng Jines of socioeconomic and other demographic
cleavages will be come a principal explanation for the
inequalities in participa
t ion we have described in carlier chapters. Moreover, we shall
investigate the roots of money, time, and civic skills in the non
political institutions with which individuals are involved through
out theír livcs. These institutions include rhe familíes into which
they are born as well as the faroilíes they create as adults, the
workplace, voluntary associations, and religious institution s. Fur
chermore, since various resources are differentially useful for vari
ous kinds of política! parricipation, understanding rhe origins and
distribution of resource"'s will help exp lain not only why sorne
people are active but why they are active in particular ways. In
chis chapter we consider money and time; in the next we turn to
civic skills.
288
Resources: Time and Money 289
Money and Time
Money and time are the resources expended most directly in
political activit y. It is impossible to comribute to a campaign or
other política! cause without sorne discretionary income.
Similarly, it is impossible to write a lerter to a public official,
attend com munity meetings, or work in a campaign without the
free time to do so. We are able to measure both of these <lirectly.
We measure money in terms of family income.1 We measure free
time in terms of the residual time available to an individual after
accounting for the hours spent doing necessary household tasks of
ali sorts in cluding child care, working for pay íncluding
commuting and. work taken home (for those in the work force), st
udying or going to school (for those taking courses toward a
degree), and sleepíng.2 These resources differ in their distribution
in the population and in their usefulness for political acti vity .3
Time is both more constrained and more evenly distributed than
is mone y. Time is constrained by the fact that, unlike money, it
cannot be banked for later use if nor expended toda y. Furrher
more, in contrast to money, there is a fixed upper bound on rime:
rhe best-endowed of us has only twenty-four hours in a day.4
Because time is inherently limited, disposable time is more evenly
distributed across índivid uals than is disposable income. Even
allowing for the difference in the metrics, the gap in dollars be
tween the richest and poorest is far wider than the gap in hours
1. For a fulle r explicarío n of the mcasurc of famil y income, sce Appendix B. l3.
2. For the rime use quesrio m ancl a discussion, see App endix B.15 .
3. On rhe similarirics and differen ces berween time and moner as resources, see Jacob
Mincer, " Labor Force Participatio n of Married Women: A Srudy of Labor Market Supply,"
in Aspects of Labor Economics, ed. National Bureau Committee for Econo mic Rescarch
(Princeron: Princeton Uoivcrsiry Press, J 962); and Clifford Henry Shnr p, Thc Eamomics
o( Tim e (Ox ford: Martín Rohinson, 1981).
4. Therc is evidence that Ame.ricans are working more an¿ have less free time for leisure
or volunreer activiries. See Juliet B. Schor, The Overworked American: The Un, e pected
Decline of Leisure (Ne w York: Basic Bo o ks, 1991). Her estimare (chap. 2) chat rhe
average American is working one extra monrh per year indic,1tes how severe is che cutback
in rhe time avaibble for volunteer activity. See als o Benjamín Kline Hunnicut t, Work
wit/Jo11t End : Aba 11doning Sho rter Hours far the Right to W ork (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1988 ), who argues ( pp. 1-4 ) that rhe lon g-term trend toward a sho rrer
work week ended around the close of che Great Depressio n or the beginning of World War
]l.
290 Voice and Equality
Resources: Time and Moncy 291

between the busiest and most leisured. Indeed, of al! the resources have more free time to spare for politics. On one hand, we
that facilitate política] involvement, money is the most stratified. might guess that the rich would be better off when it comes to
Income and wealth are especially highly stratified in the United time because they can hire others-gardeners, accountants, and
States. In comparíson with other developed democracies, income and the like-to do what most people have to do for themselves. On
wealth are distributed relatively unequally in the United States.5 the other, we might expect that the rich would have less free
Moreover, there is strong evidence that, after a long period of time because they manage to accumulate wealth by dint of the
stability beginning after World War II, income inequality has grown long hours they log at work. 7 Indeed, the ambiguity is
in the last decade and a half.6 expressed in the cliché that "If you want sornething done, ask a
Money plays a dual role in our analysis of política! participa busy person." Again, the contrast between time and money is
tion: it is at the same time an important source of política! con apparent. Imagine an old saw asserting, "If you want a large
flict-one of the characteristics that defines citizens' needs and contribution, ask a poor person."
interests-and an important resource for political action. In earlier
chapters we have shown how political contributions vary substan
WHO HAS MONEY? WHO HAS TIME?
tially by income group and how income is related to substantial
We can learn more about the distinction between money and time
differences in needs, circumstances, and interests. In this important
as política! resources by considering their availability to politically
respect, money functions quite differently from time. Although
relevant groups. Figure 10.1 shows the average family income and
citizens differ in theír access to free time, American politics has
average free time for respondents differentiated by their educa
not involved conflicts between the harried and the leísured in the
cional attainment and, if working, their job level (that is, the
way that it has sometimes involved conflicts between the affluent
education and on-the-job training required). The data in the top
and the less well-heeled. Not only are income groups themselves
portian of the figure show, not unexpectedly, that average family
politically relevant, but income inequa!ities, not unexpectedly, hew
income rises steeply with the respondent's educational leve!. In
to other fault lines of política! dívision. As we shall see, those who
contrast, there is no analogous pattern of stratification when it
are advantaged in other ways also report more income. This is
comes to free time. Those who never finished high school (a
another way in which money is dístinguished from time as a
disproportionate share, 51 percent, of whom are retired, keeping
política! resource.
house, or permanently disabled} have more spare time; beyond
Whereas those with incorne and wealth self-evidently have more
this, however, educational leve! is not associated with differences
money to spare for politícs, it is less obvious whether they also
in free time. The data in the bottom portian of Figure 10.1 repeat
tbis pattern for position in the job hierarchy.8 Once again, the data
5. For recent data thar place the l lnite d States in the se.t of countdes with the lowest
income equality, see M.ichael O'Higgins, Gunther Schmaus, and Geoffrey Stephenson,
" Income Distr i bution and Redistribution: A Microdata Analysis for Seven Conntries," in
7. In fact the se conjectures re/lect the contradictory predictions of economic theory
Pouerty, Inequality, and Jncome Distribt1tion in Comparative .Perspective: The
which holds both that an income effect would produce more leisure for the wealthy beca
Luxembot1rg Income Study {LIS), ed. Timothy M. Smeeding , Michael O'Higgins, and Lee
use tbey are able to purchase it and rhat a substitut ion effect would produce less because
Rainwater (Washington, D.C.: The Urban lnstiture Press, 1990), pp. 20-56.
6. On tbis issue sce, far example, the papers and bibliographical citations in Uneuen their higher wages raise the opportunity cost of free time. See Mincer, "Labor Force
TidEs: Rísing lnequa /íty in America, ed. Sheldon Danzigcr and Peter Gottscbalk (New York: Participa tion," p. 63.
8. The job level variable captures respondents' assessments of the education and/or
Russell Sage Foundarion, 1993). Kevin P. PhiLlips makes a similar argument in The I'olitics
training on rhe job required to handle a job like rheirs. The caregories rangc from jo bs
of Rich a,ul Poor: Wealth ami the American Electontte in the Reagan ,t(ter¡nath {New
requiring no more than a high school diploma and less than one month of on-the-job
York: Random House, 1990 ).
training to jobs requiring eithcr a graduare degree or a college degree and at .leasr two years
 A. Family Income and Free Time by Education Rcsources: Time and Mo.ney 293
Education Average Fam il y lncome (S 1 ,00 0 ' s )

No H igh School Diplom a $19 bear out our expectatio ns with respect to income: those whose
High School Grad uate $34 jobs require high levels of education or long periods of on-the- jo b
training have much higher family inco mes. When it comes to free
Sorne College
time, however, we had contradictory expectations. On one hand,
$61
we hear a great deal abour the long hours worked by those in
$41 high -level jobs-for examp le, corporate lawyers in large fi.rms. On
$60 $80 the other, those ac the opposite end of rhe job spectrum oft en have
Co llege Graduare
to moonlight simp ly to make ends meet. In fact, free time due nut
$0 $20 $40 8.7 vary systematically with occupation leve!. Those at che top may
Education Average } four s fr ee per Day
feel harried-or they may complain especially loudly-but they
are not disadvanraged when it comes to time.
No High School Diploma
Similar patterns emerge when we consider the availability of
money and time to Latinos, African-Americans, and Anglo-Whites
and to men and women in Figure 10.2. As we would expect,
Sorne College

· College Grnduate
o 2 4 6 8 10 Anglo -Whites and men are discincdy advantaged when it comes
co fami ly income. Once aga in, however, they enjo y no analogous
advantage with respect to free time. Men and women are equally
B. Family Income and Free Time by Job Leve!
busy. Anglo-Whir es have slightly mo re time than African-Ameri
Job Leve! Ai·erage Famil y Jnco m e ($1 ,000's)
cans, and Latinos reporc somewhat less time than the ot her two
Least Trnining
groups. But the differences are minimal compared with the gaps
m mcome.
$38
If various measures of socioeco nomic advantage, race and eth
nicity, and gender are not related to the availabi.lity of free time,
$50 what does influence the amounr of leisure an individual enjoys?
Most T raining $65 The answer is strikingly simple and, in retrospect, obvious. The
$40$60$80 data are shown in Figure 10.3. The factors that affect free time are
"life circumstances." Having a job reduces free time. So <loes
having

4.4
o f o n-rhe-j o b rrain ing. The scale has fivc categorics. Alt hough the job lcvel d a ss ilications
a re based on what rcspondenrs rold us rathcr tha n on objcctive assessments, exa mination of
4.J actua l cases suggesrs rhat respondents make judgments fairly accura tely. Exa mples of occ
upati on s at each le ve[ includ e:
4.7
Mo st Training 5.0 l . Dis hwasher Jan iro r C a s hier
2. Bank teller Mail ca Machine o perntor
4 o 3. Ele c rrier Mac Constructio n inspecto r
trician hinist .Elemen rnr y teacher
4. Insurnnce agcnt Engineer Atrorne y
5. Physician Arc hite ct
Figure 10.1 Family Income and Free Time by Education
For the questions, see Append ix B.11. b.
and Job Lcvel.
 Resources: Time and Money 295
294 Voice and Equality

Race or Ethnicity Average Hours Free Per Day

Average Family ln come ($1,000'

s) Not Wor king 10.7
Latinos
$28 ployment Working Part Time
A,;,,,.Ao<e<=s 1 $30
Anglo-Wh1tes 11 $42 Working Ful! T ime

$0 $20 $40 $60

Spouse Not Wor king

Hours Free per

Latrnos 1 Average
Day Spouse Working
African-Amencans
Anglo-Wh1tes I
6.6 No Children at Home
L_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

O 2 School-Age Children ar Home

4 6 8
G ender Pre-Schoo lers at Home

Av

;
o 3 6 9 12
$37
Men Children at Home.
$44
Wornen erage Family ln come (S1 ,00 0 ' s) Figure 10.3 Free Time by Employmenr, Spouse's Employment, and

$0 $20 $40 $60

Aiierage Hours Free per Day basís of variables measuring socioeconomic status and other life
Wornen
j: 6.5 circumstances. For this purpose, we turn to multiple regression

=Men

o 2 ' 4 6
6.S

8
Figure 10.2 Family Income and free Time by Race
or Ethnicity and Gender.
young children at home---especially pre-school ers- although hav
ing grown children seems to have no effecr. Having a spouse with
a job also diminishes free time. In addition, data not shown in
Figure 10.3 indicare that among rhose not in the work force, the
rerired have the most time not committed ro other activities.
PREDICTING INCOME AND FREE TIME
We can deepen our understanding of thc differences between money
and time by undertaking analyses that predict each of them on the
analysis. The results of a multiple regression analysis predicting
income and free time are given in Table 10.1. Since rhis is a mode
of analysis we use often in this book, we digress briefly to discuss
why we use regression techniqu es and how to interpret the results.
We hope this discussion will help readers unfamiliar with this
technique to understand the data. More technically sophisricated
readers may wish to skip this explication-although they may be
interested in our explanation of why we use ordinary least squares
multiple regression, a technique we supplement ar various points
with other techniques.
A Note on Multiple Regression
Multiple regression is a commonly used statistical technique that
indicares which putative causes (or independent variables) are
associated with a dependent variable. It was developed to deal
 296 Voice and Equality Resources: Time and Moocy 297

Table 10.1 Predicting Family Income and Free Time: OLS Regression Results able. The interpretation of a regression coefficient can be illus
Free Time
trated by the .57 coefficient for education as a predict or of income
Family Income
on Table 1O.l. Because the equation contains multíple indepen
B SE B Beta B SE B dent variables, the coefficient for the impact of education on in-
Variable
. come measures that effect while taking account of--controlling
EDUCAT!O N AND .57*' ' .os .29 -·.07 .OS for-the other factors included in the analysis, for instance , the
JOB
Education
Working .08 .08 .02 - 2.71" * .09 kind of jo b. Educatíon is measured as eight steps that go from
Job kvel .16'' .os .08 .011 .06 gramruar schuul ec.lucation tu Ph.D. or professional degree. Thus,
FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS
everything else remaining the same, a respondent whose education
Spou.sc working .52 '" .16 -1.92*''
.48** .08 increases one leve] obtains a .57 increase in famíly income. Sínce
''
.06 .00 -.10 íncome is measured in tens of thousands of dollars, this is a $5,700
Pre-school children - .01 .17
.16 .03 --.97*'" .19
School-age children .20 increase for each of the eight steps up the educational ladder! A
respondent who moves two levels obcains $11,400 more income
DEMOGRA PHIC CHARACTERISTJCS
-.15 .19 -.01 .10 .23 (2 X .57 X $10,000 = $1 1,400 ). Changes of this magnitude are
Black
Larino -.46 .24 - .05 -.37 .28 certainly substantively significant.
Gender - .33 "' .12 - .05 -1.12** .14 The change in the dependent varia ble, however, míght be the
result of errors in our estimation of this equatíon which come from
(Constant) 2.60'' '' .41 13.24** 48
having only a sample to represent che entire population of the
R" .19 .53 Uniced States and from other uncertainties in our understandíng
Sample Size 2,445 2,463 of the determinants of family income . The second column of
weighted cases weighted cases
Table
• Significant at .05 level. 10.1 contains a measure called the standard error of B which tells
•• Significant ac .01
leve!. us how precise our estimare is. The usual convenrion is to use che
standard error to construct a confidence interva l of possible values
Note: Age is also inc!L1de<l in the equa tio n but not .reported in che table .
for the regression coefficient. This is conscructed by taking the
regression coefficient in the first column of Table 10 .1 and adding
with multiple overlapping causes and to distinguish those causes and subtracting approximately two standard errors. If that ínter
that are systematic across people and situarions from those that val does not include zero, we can have sorne confidence that the
are idiosyncratic to particular people and situations . Regression regression coefficient is not zero- that it has, in statistical terms,
analysis considers a set of possible systematic determinants of the a statistically significant impact, in contrast to the substantively
dependent variable and assigns each potential determinant a re- significant in-ipact. The asterisks in Table 10.1 indicate that a
gression coefficient . coefficient is scatistical!y significa nt. Both substantive
The unstandardized regres sion coefficient ( B) in the first column significance and statistical significance are imporrant-the former
of Table 10.1 measures che effect on the dependent variable of a measuring the amount of effect an independent variable has, the
change in the independent variable. A one-unit change in the · latter the likelihood thar che effect was not produced by chance.
independent variable produces a change in the dependent variable equal The two forros of significance are relat ed, but not identical. In
to the regression coefficient multiplied by thc units in which. •.·· the discussing mulciple regressions, we shall refer to boch meaníng s.
dependent variable is measured. The size of that impact is a. ··. Let us íllustrate by continuing wich the examp le of the coef
measure of the substantive significance of the independent vari- ficient for education as a predictor of income in Table 10.1. Using
298 Voice and Equality
che standard errors, we can calculare the confidence incerval around
the regression coefficienc of .57. Since two standard errors equal
.10, the interval runs from .47 to .67. Since chis imerval <loes not
indude zero, we can be confident that che effcct of education
s catistically significant as well. The double asterisk indicates it
significant at the .01 leve!. This means that if the true value of th
coefficient were zcro, there wo uld be only one chance in on
hundr ed of finding a coefficient as large as was found. Thus, w. are
pretty confid ent in assuming chat che true coefficient is not zer;o T
able 10.1 also contains a third measure, the beta weight. Th
beta weight is a standardized measure of che effect of the ind ··
pendent variable on the dependent varia ble. It adds a piece o
informarion that can be very useful in mak ing comparisons acro·
variable s. One of che defects of a regression coef.fic iem is that th
coefficient for any particular independ ent variable depends upo
the seale of chat variable. In this respect, regression coefficients ar
somewhac arbi trary. If we were to change che number of categorie
imo which educatio n is divided, we would change the regressio· '
coefficient. Since che narure of the categor ies is not
comparab;l across ind ependem variables measured in different
metrics, cannot easily compare che effects of two independent
variable . Th e beta weighr provides us with a common scale so that
we ca compare the effects of rwo variables. Every variable has a stan
dar devia tion that indicates how much it varíes in the population beiri
studied. The beta weight indicares how much of a standard devia
tion change in the depend ent variable will result from a oif
standard deviation change in the independent var ia ble.9 · ··
To take an example frorn Table 10.1: the regression coefficien
would seem to indicare that education (+.57) and being Latín .
(- .4 6) ha ve effects on income of a similar size, although in t!l
opposite directio n. However, educatio n is measured in eight cat
gories while the variable measuring ethniciry is a dichotomy
respondent e.ither is or is not Latino. Thus, there are seven step
9. The virtues of beta weigh ts are also their defecrs. The standard deviation of a var ia
depends upon the popu iatio n being scu<lie,d so that eclnca tion, for exa mple, would se
co marter more, everything else being equa l, in a po pu lat io n in which there is large varían
in educarion rat ber than a small amount of va riance.
Resources: Time and Moncy 299
on the educacional ladd er, each of which adds ro income; there is
o ly one for the ' Latino" var iable. The beta- which is roughly
is six tim es as large for education as for being Latino-is a better
comparison across those two independcm varia bles. In later analy
is ses, we will use beta weights when we wish to compare across
independent variables measured in different units.
Perhaps che most fundamental issue in undertaking regression
analysis is choosing which vari ables to include in the predictive
equation and which to leave o ut. Sysrematic foctors must be in-
. cluded ; uns ystematic or idiosyncratic factors can be omit ted
from the predicrive equa tio ns. In the example in Table 10.1,
educario n is a systematic cause: the higher the leve! of
educatíonal attain mcnt, rhe higher the family income. An idiosy
ncratic charactcr is tic might be something like winning the lott
ery. This kind of factor is not unimportant; rather it is uniq ue to
particular ind ividuals. These factors are consign ed to the "
residual" (som etimes mislead ingly called the " error term") in
ana lysis.
w Multiple regression can lead to quite misleading results if the
unidentificd omitted facrors in rhe residual term are correlated
with factors included in the multiple regression equation. If rhe
omitted facrors are correlated with variables in the equatio n, then
the variables in thc equatio n wjIJ carry the effect of- o r proxy
these other causes as well as the causes they were mcant to repre
. sent. This leads to misleading inferences; just how mis lead ing
depends in pare on the real causal connections among the included
and excluded variables. In Table 10.1, for instan ce, we includ e
?oth a measure of the respondent's race and educatio n to explain
1 come. The race variable (being African-American) has rela tively
httle effect. What seems to matte r is education levcl. Had we Ieft
education out of rhe analysis in Table 10.1 , the coefficient for the
race varia ble would have been substa ntially larger ( - . 26 rather
• than- .15 as in Table 10.1) since race would carry the effect of
. · education on income. This would be the result of omitting a factor
correlated with the factors in the equat ion. It would produce a
. somewhar misleading result. It would be only somewhat misJead
: ing beca use whether or not one is an African-American <lo es have
a real effecr on income, an effect, however, that runs in part
': throu gh educatio n. In the absence of a measme of education in
300 Voice and Equality
the analysis, the finding as to the size of the effect of race would
not be a false finding. Rather, it would be an incomplete finding.
A more serious error would emerge if the omitted variable that
was correlated with the included factors truly explained income.
Let us suppose for the rnoment thar the underlying real cause of
income leve! were a psychological predisposition to try hard-an
ambition factor-rhat also affected education level. The results .
would misleadingly suggest that income was caused by
educacional attainment, when both income and education were the
result of thís psychological predisposirion. As we try to explain
political activity, we must pay attention to the possible existence.···
of such
predispositions.
These examples illustrate the care that must be taken in making
decisions about what to exclude or include in regression equations.
Ideally, we must be sure that we have included all of the most
important variable s so rhat the error term is uncorrelated wirh the
included independent variables. In the end, theor y, common sense,
and sorne empirical testing are the only way to be certain. In
presenting results, one strategy is to include all the variables con
sidered relevant at once. We adopt this approach for income and
free time in Table 10.1. On other occasions-for example, when
we try to explain participation in Chapter 11-we take a more step-
by-step approach in order to avoid a false sense of finality and
certainty. In so doing we hope to provide the reader with a
sense of how rhe model we develop carne ro have rhe shape ir does
and why we have substantial faith in ir.
There is still another major problem we have to face in inter
preting our regression analyses. What appears to be our inde
pendent variable may not be the cause but the effect of our de
pendent variable. Or, to make things worse, the causal arrow
might run both ways, creating a problem of símultaneous causa
tion. This danger will vary with the substance of the variables
under consideration. The variables in Table 10.1, which seeks to
explain income and free time, do not appear to pose a real prob
lem: it seems highly unlikely that having a high family income
causes a respondent to be male or to have a working spouse. In
general, if we are not in doubt as to the correct causal order, we
can use "ordinary least squares" {OLS) regression analysis to es-
Resources: Time and Money 301
timare the relationship betwe en independent and dependent vari
ables. At various stages of our analysis of participation, however ,
the danger of simultaneous causation will assume greater propor
tio ns. In these cases, we shall try to solve the simultaneity
problem by using a technique called "two-stage least-squares"
{2SLS). To be conservative, we often display the results from
both OLS and
2SLS analyses. /
We now return to the analysis of Table 10 .1.. Table 10 .1
reports two regression equations, one far family íncome and
another for free tim e. For each equation, nine regression
coefficienrs are listed for nine differ ent inde pendent variables
including three measures of socioeconomic status, rhree measures
of family structure, and measures of race, ethnicity, and gender.10
The comparison between
the variables that best predict family income and free time is quite
striking.
Family income is closely related to the socioeconomic stratifica
tion variables that distinguish in various ways the advantaged
from rhe disadvanraged, in particular to ed ucation and the leve!
of the job. Havíng a working spouse also increases income. In
addítion, even with these factors taken into account Blacks La-
tinos, and women ha ve somewhat lower family in'comes. '
The
predictors of free time are different. Free time is a function of such
life circumsrances as having a job, a working spouse, or small
children at hom Education, so powerful a predictor of income,
eu.
has no effecc on. free cime .1 2 Note thar the leve! of the job--che
education and on-the-job training needed for the job-is signifi-
10. The definirions of rhe variables for 1able 10.1 are given in Appendix B. We also
included dummy variables for various age categories in the equacion to cake inco acco unt
the confounding effec ts of age on in com e and free time. In onler not to overburden Table
10.1 wirh additional figur es, we did nor include rhc age darn rhere.
U . lf we add fam ily income to che regression for free time, we find thac ir also has no
irnpact. Ir is inrerest ing to note rha t, as one would expect, having a working spouse increases
income but d iminis hes free rime.
12. Jn contrast wirh income , which increases by $5,700 with each step up rhe ed ucarional
ladder, the coefficient for free time is - .07; rhat is, each step up in cducarion is assoc iared
with a decline of .07 of an hour of free time (about 5 minutes). In fact, the standard error
isa l mos r as large as thc coefficienr, indicating rhat the coefficier.r is statistically insignificant.
302 Voice and Equality
cant as a predictor of fam ily income, but whether one is working .
or not <loes not predict family income .B For free time the situation ,
is reversed; what counts is having a job, while the level of the job
<loes not seem to have an effect. What chis means is that time, in,·
sharp contrast to money, is a resource relatively equally available·
to the rich and the poor, to Blacks and Whites, and to the educate cL.
and the less well educated . In this busy world, the proper lo cutio ri\
might be that it is equa lly unavailable to ali sor ts of people- but
the equality in its availabílity is what counts.14 · greater time on the job. Among full-time workers, men repon ed
GENDER AND FREE TIME: A NOTE
Careful readers may have noticed a potential inc onsistency in tbei
data we have presented. Figure 10.2 shows no gender differe nce\
in terrns of the average number of hours left over after accounting
for life's necessary ac tivi ties: paid work, household chores and ·.
child care, school , and sleep. Yet the seeming gender similari t y in- ·
Figure 10.2 obscures a finding that emerged from the equation·
reported in Ta ble 10.1: with other factors controlled, men have
significantly more free time available than women do.
The solution to the puzzle Hes in the way in which women's and \
men's lives have traditionally heen patterned by differenc commitc\
ments to home and the workplace. The data on time constraints/
make clear that life circurnstances have a different impact on free
time for women than for men. Not surprisingly, those who work \
ful! time, a group that is dísproportionately male, have less free\
time rhan those who work part time or are not in the work force{ ,
a group that is disproportionately fema le. However, the reduction \
13. This is notro say that wher her oc nor one works has no impact on incomc. Rarher
ir savs tha t when one takes inro accounc che leve] of rhe job--in relarion to which those
who· are not working are categorized in rhe lowesc category-rhe fact of working per se
has no impact. Tbis is an example wherc r.he omj ssio n of a correlated variable would
change· .'. t he coefficient of an included variab le. If we had left job leve! out of the
equarion, the ..
c oefficient for working would more than double and be statisrically significanr.
i significant drop in free time for both men and wo men, women lose twice as much free rime
14. Just as the distribution of free time is nor connecced to class or gender, so th;e
<.;
shrin.king of free time ,s an " across-rhe-board" phenomen on. "[T]he rise of work is not <'
confined to a few ,electivc groups, but bas a ffe cred the great majurity of working Aroeri, \
cans. Hours have risen for men as well as women, for those in the working dass as well i
as pro fessiona ls. They have grown for alJ marita l staruses ancl income groups." Sch or;\
Overworked American, p. 5.
Resourccs: Time and Money 303
in leisure deriving from full-time cmployment is greater for
women th an for men. This is not the resulc of greater time spent
on the joh, but of the fact that women who work full time continue
to assume disproportionate responsibility for caring for home and
children.15 Among those who work full time, women reponed
working somewhat shorter hours, 9.5 hours per <lay, than men,
who average 10.1 hours. However, the additional time spent by
women on chores at home more than compensares for mcn's
devoting 2.6 hours a <lay and women 3.7 hours a day to home and
/'.t child care.1 6 In sh ort, what may once have been an advantage for
women in terms of the resource of time has disappeared with
women's increasing work force participation. However, we must
remember that in comparison with money, for which there is an
unambiguous masculine advantage, tim e seems in the aggregate to
be relacively equally distríbuted wich respect to gender.
To summarize, we have seen that time ís more equally distrib
uted than is money. Moreover, in sharp contrast to money, spare
time is not differentially available to those who are in other ways
privileged by virtue of their education, occupation, race, or eth
nicity. The implications for política] activity are profound. If the
necessary resource for participation is money, politics will be more
stratified than if che necessary resource is time. The data suggest,
and we shall demonstrate, that a participatory system based on
money will be more unequal than one based on time. We shall
return to this theme when we look at the impact of resources on
various participatory acts.
15. See, for exarnple, Arlie Hochschild, The Sec011d Shi(t: Working Parents and the
Re101 /11tio11 at Home (New York: Vikin g, 1989).
16. A regression analysis of how rhe free rime available ro women and men relates ro
fornily and work circumstances shows char rhe same Jjfc cir cumst ances affect the free time
available ro women and to men: working (especially full time), having a working spo use,
and having children ar hom e. With one exception, there are no gendcr d iiferences in the
coefficients. The exceptíon is that, whi!e having pre-schoo!ers at home leads to a statistically
from pre-schoolers as men do. Look ed at another way, if we considcr those with foil-time
jobs and pre-schoolers ar home, women rcport thar, in comp,1rison to men, rhey give, on
average, 1.3 hours less to paid work and 1.9 hours mure ro housewo rk.
··
 417

15

From Generation to Generation: +

The Roots of Participatory Factors

The Cívic Voluntarísm Model focuses on several sets of activity

enhancing factors: resources, political engagement, and the expe
rience of being exposed in a non-political setting to attempts at
direct political recruitment. We have located the roots of these
varíous factors in non-política! institutional affiliations. In this
chapter we probe more deeply into their origins by tracing the
complex processes by which the characteristics acquired at birth
and early experiences in family and school ramify throughout the
life course, generating participatory factors and, ultimately, políti
ca! activity. We will demonstrate that the participatory process is
rooted in the basic structures of American society.
We outline a four-step process, summarized in Figure 15. l. The
process begins with characteristics present ar the outset: in par
ticular, sex, race or ethnicity, and parents' educacional attainment.
In rhe first step, we investigare how these characteristics are related t
to pre-adult experiences at home and in school, especially to for
mal education and to political socialízation by family and school.
Educational attainment and exposure to politics while growing up,
in turn, affect the placement of the individual in various adult
institutions: in a job, in organizations, and in religious institutions.
Institutional location, then, affects the acquisition of the various
factors that foster participation. Finally, as we have already shown,

416
418 Voice and Equality
these participatory factors affect the amount and kinds of political
activity.
To depict this chain of int errelated proc esses is a rask of daunt ing
magnitud e. We do not aspire to exp la i n fully ever y single
participatory factor. For example, we leave tO st ud en ts of social
stratification the ful! exp lanation of family income. Still, we are
able to highlight sig nificant aspects of the accum ulation of partici
patory factors from generatio n to generation and wirhin the indi - ,
vidual's own life .
Thi s enterprise raises the usual questi ons about the imputation ,
of causality. To tackle the i ntell ect ual problem we have set for /
our selve s, longitudinal dat a gathered throughout rhe life-cycle o(
an individual would be far preferable to the cross-sectional data ' rhat
we have. This mean s that we shall, as always, need to exercise•. •.
caution and be clear about the uncert aint y associated with the .
inferences thar we make. Furthermore, because a nwnber of our
measures involv e retrospective recon srructi ons of experien ces that •:
may have taken place decades ago, we need to be cognizant of the .
extent to which assessmenrs of the past are distorted by the vaga
ríes of memory or the lens of subs equent commitments and events.. •··
Nevert heless, what we find out about the processes by which par
ticipatory factors are srockp iled is so interesti ng and plaus ible thar; <
exer cisin g due caution, we feel it appropriate to make causal con- <
nectio ns.
Two Central Themes:
Intergenerational Transmission and Educa tio n
In our analysis, we pay special attention to two aspects of
rnulti-stage process: the importa nce of imergenerarional transmis- .•
sion and the crucial role of education . The two are closely relate d)
and, together, play an important role in the p rocess by wh.ich some :
citizens come ro be active while others do not. ··
I NT E R GE N ER AT JO N AL TRANSM!SSION
We are concerned with the legacy of past generations in various
ways: one involves the transmission of social class across genera- \ '
The Root s of Participatory Factors 419
tions; ano ther the tra nsmis sion of more dir ect poli tical cues. These
processes have been investigat ed extensive ly in the social sci nces,
i the former in the field of social mobility,1 the la tter in the field of
political socialization.2 We consider both and find that we can dis
tinguish their effects on future act ivity. With respect to the trans
mission of social class, we begin with the socioeconomic stat us of
the parents, which we measur e in terms of parental educa tion.
Although rhose who study social stratification differ in rhe extent to
which they find rhat social background determines life chances, there
is no doubt that circumstances of iniria l social advantage or
disadvantage have consequen ces for ultimar e educational attain
ment, occupational choice, and income level. In terms of political
socialization, we are int eres ted in the implica tions of exposure to
politically relevant stimuli in the famil y early in life- having po
liticall y involved parents or being expo sed to política] discussion at
home-for the propensity to become active in politics as an adult.
We consider another form of int ergener ational influence as well.
Both parental religious attendance and pa rental education have an
impact on religious commitments, which are in turn relat ed ro
political activity. These parental characteristics are also related to
residencial mobil ity in la ter life, which has an effect on política!
activity in the community. This constitutes a third rout e for inter
generational transmission.
1. Importan, works in a vast literacure includc Peter M, Blau and Otis Dud]cy Duncan,
The American Occu patio nal Structure ( N ew Yo rk: Free Press, 1967 ) aad David L,
Feather· man and Ro bert M, Hauser, O pport,mity and Change ( New Yo rk: Acadcmic
Pre ss, 1978).
2. Works on pol irical so cializario n have dealt with the transmissio n of general orienta
tio ns roward the legirimacy of the political syste m, more specific attimdes such as polirical
ideology or parrisan identificati on, as well as wirh the propensity ro be polirically engaged
and active. 1l1e lite rat ure is exrensive , For general acco unr s see Richar d E. Dawson,
Kenneth Prewit t, and Karen S. Dawson, l'úlitical Socialization: An Analytic Study , 2nd ed.
(Boston: Little Brown, 1977 ); Stanley Allen Rensho n, Handbook o( Political Socialiw tion:
Theory and Resear ch (New York: Free Press, 1.977); and Keun eth P. Langton, Politiail
Participation and Leaming ( Nort h QL1incy, Mass.: Christopher Publishing Housc, :
1980 ). l'or works particularly relevam to our concern wírh experiences during ado lcscence,
see M. Kent Jennings and R ich ard G. Niemí, The Pol itical Character o( Adolescenca: The
fof/uence o/ Families and Schools {Princeron: Princeton Univers.iry Press, 197 4); and
Jennin g and Niemi, Generations and Politics: A Panel Study o(Yo,mg Adults and Their
Parents (Prim,e ton: Princeton Un iversity Press, 198 1).
420 Voice and Equalit y
THE ROLE OF EDUCATTON
The emphasis upan the consequences far future participation of
school experiences leads to a second majar theme, the crucial role
of education. All studies of political activity emphasize the strength
of the relationship between formal education and participation .3
This chapter presents a complex analysis that gets inside that
relationship. As we shall see, education plays multiple roles vis-a
vis participation. Indeed, education enhances nearly every single
one of rhe participatory factors: those who are well educated have
higher incomes and exercise more civic skills; they are more po
litically interested and informed; they are more likely to be in
institutional settings from which they can be recruíted to politics.
The impact of education is both direct and indirect. The direct
effects happen in the school. Both in the classroom and in extra
curricular activities, students learn communications and organ.iza
tional skills. They may also absorb civic values and develop an
interest in politics. In addition, education has an indirect influence
on participation. Educational attainment is the most powerful
determinant of the kinds of jobs people get. Since occupational
level, in turn, has a substantial influence on the incomes they earn,
the civic skills they practice on the job, and the kinds of networks
with which they become involved, educational attainment thus has
an indirect impact on the acquisition of severa! crucial política!
resources.4 In addition, education affects leve! of activity in organi
zations and, to a lesser exterit, religious institutions and, therefore,
the opportunities for the exercise of civic skills and far política!
recruitment. All of these processes work together, with the result
that those with more educar.ion accumulate more of the resources
and motivations that foster activity .
3. Th e cent ral role of e duca tion is s tressed in much o f th e socialization literature . See
especially Langton, Po litical Parti ci pation and Learning. In rheir analysis o f voti ng
turnout, Wolfinger an d Rosenston e emphasi ze the key role of edu ca rion in determining who
vo tes. The y ci te var io us ways in w hich educatio n affects t urno ut- arnon g thcm, pr o vi d ing
skills and facili tating the acqu is it io n of informa tio n. Educatio n also incr eases t he gratificat
io n
dcrived from vot ing. See Ra yrno nd E. Wolfin ger and Steven J. Rosen sto ne, 'v/ho Votes?
( New Haven: Yale University Press, 1 980).
4. " Th e best availa ble predictor of a yo ung man's eventua l s ta t us or earnings is rhe
amount o f sc hooling he has had. " Christoph er Jencks et al., Who Gets Ahead: T he
Determinants of Economic Succéss in America (New Yo rk: Basic Boo ks, 1979 ), p. 230 .
The Roots of Participatory Facto.rs 421
The Variables in the Chain
Because the analysis in this chapter is complicated, involving not
only the many variables treated earlier but sorne new ones as well,
let us begin by introducing the variables in sequence befare we
delineare the chain of connections.
!NITIAL CHARACTERISTICS
The first set of variab les in the chain of participatory factors are
measures of characterisrics acquired at birth. We focus on the
same ones to which we pay attention when we consider adults:
social class, race or ethnicity , and sex. We measure social class of
origin by the average number of years of schooling of the
respondent's parents.5 An adult's social class is, of course, not fixed
at birth. Indeed, a significant component of the American ideology
is the possibility of upward mobility. Still, social dass origins
constitute a factor having long-term consequences far later life.
Given the central place of educatíon in borh explanations of
participation and the measurement of social class, párental
educational attain ment provides a useful proxy far parental social
class and a good srarting point for the chain of connections posited
here. Although it is a retrospective meas ure, we have
considerable confidence that respondents know, and report fairly
accurately, rheir parents' edu cation . Moreover, it is, quite
obviously, antecedent to later expe nences.
Sex and race or ethnicity are also established at birt h. 6 T hese
characteristics obviously have the basic features of causally prior
factors: temporal priority and immutability. However, their impli
cations far human behavior are dependent upon the social inter
pretation of their meaníng. Hence, the nature and extent of the
effects of sex and race or ethnicity on the factors that facilitare
política] participation are not fixed bur, insread, can vary with
changing circumstances and changing times. In short, although
5. See A ppen d ix B.1 8.a.
6. In thi s c hapter these will be meas ured, as usual , by using dummy va riab l.es for being
female ( r ather than male), a nd for being La tino or for being Africa n-American ( rather rhan
"othcr"- mostl y, An glo -Wh it e).
422 Voice and Equality
race, ethnicity, and sex cannot vary over the life course of the
individual, their meaning for the factors associated with political
acti vity can.
YOUTH EXPERIENCES
From these inirial characteristics, we move to rhree sets of vari
ables reflecting experiences at home and school while growing
up. We focus first on the family, considering the extent to which
the respondents were exposed to politically relevant stimuli at
home
whether, at the time when respondents were sixteen, their parents ..
were politically active and there were discussions of politics at <
home.7 These measures presenr no problems of temporal priority.
However, there is reason to be concerned that they may not be
acc urate reports of the past. Those who are currently active might
well be more likely to report past exposures-because they are
unconsciously harmonizing memories of home with their present
commitments or because they were more sensitive to the political
cues at the time they were growing up. We cannot eliminare this
possibility and should, thus, view any effects on participation of
politícs ar home with particular cauti.on. However, when we con-<
sider the data later in the chapte r, th e pattern of effects of these .·•·
variables is sufficiently compelling as to suggest that we are tap- :
ping a real phenomenon.
Education and Educational Experiences. As we have already ···•·
indicated, education is the key to much of the analysis in this
chapter. As a vehicle through which parental social class operares
to affect future participatory life, education links backward to the
previous generation. Moreover, it links forward in severa! ways to
enhance the likelihood that an individual will become active. One
of the main goals of this chapter is to sort out the multiple
implications of education for participation.
In spite of the large volume of data confirming the relationship
between educational attainment and political participation, there
have been relatively few empirical inquiries as to why schooling ·•·..
7. Jenn ings and Niemi, Generatirms and Politics, show that parents who are active are·
more likely to produce children who are active. For the questions a:,out parental activity,
see Appendix B.18.b.
Tbc Root s of Participatory Factors 423
fosters activity. In order to investigate what it is about educational
experiences that promotes future political participation, we in
cluded a series of items in our questionnaire. The list covered a
var iety of ways in which schooling might affect political involve
ment.8 We asked whether:
The respondent had taken any courses tbat required students
to p::1y attention to current events;
Students in the respondent's high school were concerned
about current events and politics;
Students in the respondent' s high school were encouraged to
debate and make up their own minds about current events;
Students in the responden t's high school were allowed to com-
plain if they thought something was unfair;
The respondent was concerned about current events and politics;
The respondent was active in schoo l s ports;
The respondent was active in schoo l governrnent;
The respondent was active in other school clubs or activities.
In short, these questions asked about the civic culture of the
school, the political engagement of its students and of the respon
dent, and the extracurricular activity of the respondent. However,
it is important to recognize that respondents' experiences reflect
not only their own tastes and commitments but also the opport u
•.•. nities offered by the school. In order to take courses requiring
attention to current events, there must be such courses in the
currículum. In order to get involved in school activities, there must
be sports programs and clubs to join.
We used the answers to these questions in a regression analysis
with the overall scale of political activity as the dep ende nr vari a
ble.9 The analysis is not intended ro be an explanation of partici-
8. for the ful! questio ns, see Appcndix B. 10. b.
.9. Although we do nor rcport rh e coe fficients in Table 15.1, we also included che
respondent's age, educational ar tainment, and rhc " initial. characteristics" (pa rencs' educa
tion, gender, race, and ethn ici ty). The co ntr o l for age is usef ul to eliminare generational
effecrs. We carry it along in thc cur rent analysis. At larer stages in the analysis, contro lling
for age controls as well for li fe-cycJe effcc ts which are irrelevant ,\t this pmnr since we are
considering high school exper iences. Tber e is more to thc impact of age rha n the a nalys is
in rhis cha pter can rcveal-burrhar musr wait for furure rcsearch. The control for cducation
424 Voice and Equality The Roots of Participatory Factors 425

Table 15.1 Predicting Overall Participation by High School suggest that the most important predictive variables are not those
Experience: OLS Regressions (among high school that measure the attributes of the school-the extent to which fellow
graduares) students were politically involved or to which the school
Variable B SE B Beta encou.raged students to debate current events or permitted them to
complain. Rather, the variables most closely related to sub sequent
Respondent cared about .31 .06 .13**
participation are those that measure the activiry of the respondent as
current events
a high school student-ín particular, involvement in high school
FELLOW STUDENTS
government, bur also involvement in other clubs and activities- tho
Cared about current evenrs -.ll .06 --.04
Encouraged ro debate .06 .05 .02 ugh not activity in high school sports. In addition, having taken a
Had a chance to complain - .09 .06 -.03 course that includes discussion of current events an experience that
RESPONDENT'S ACTIVITIES IN HIGH SCHOOL
is shared by 79 percent of hígh school gradu ares and that may
Civics course .25 .08 .06*'' reflect either a decision by the respondent or a requirement by
High school government .21 .04 .13** the school-is related, though somewhat less
Clubs .10 .03 .OT"' strongly, to future activity. 10
Sports - .07 .03 - .05*
That activity in school government or school clubs is such a
(Constant) .13 .22 strong predíctor of later political activity fits nicely with our em
R' .25 phasis on the role of civic skills as a resource for politics, for these
Sample size 2,146 activities would presumably develop communications and organ
-------
' Significant at .05 level.
izational skills. Indeed, the fact that actual participatory experi
'' * Significanr at .01 level. ences appear to be the most important school effect is a significant
Note: Also in the equarion are age, paren ts' educ ation , gendtr, race ,1nd etbnicity, and finding for understanding civic education. To writers like Tocque
the respondent's ultimare educational achievemenr.
ville, local governments and voluntary organizations are "schools
of democracy," not because they give formal instruction in demo
pation, a task to which we return at the end of this chapter. Rather, cratic governance but because they give opportunities to practice
we use the analysis to help us choose which variables to carry democratic governance. At least as far as our data suggest, Ameri
along as the argument un folds . The data, which are presented in can high schools nave a similar effect, not by teaching about
Table 15.1, indicare how closely each of these experiences relates democracy but by providing hands-on training for future partici
to later política! activity. Not surprisingly, respondents' retrospec tive pation.
reports on how much they cared ahout current events while in With respect to the measures of expericnces in high school, we
high school are strongly related to adult activity. This measure is must, however, repeat sorne of thc same concerns raised when we
the one most likely to be tainted by backward projection of current discussed rcspondents' memoríes of their homes. The questions
víews ami is, thus, not entirely trustwortby. Nevertheless, it is a are retrospective and allow a good <leal of backward projection.
useful indicator of a general taste for politics. The other aspects of In addition, even if the responses are accurate depictions of high
high school experiences are more ínteresring. Tbe data

is usdul in ensur ing· that the results a re not a func, t o n of educa ti o n in general. The
data are for those who compkted high school, so rhat al! respondents hadan equa! chance to
experience rhe high school effocts. lf the ana ly s is is replicated for all who attendcd high
schoo!, whcthe r or not tbey finished, the results are simila r.
1 O. The regression coefficient for tak ing a civics course is quite high, bu t, in this case,
the beta weights are probably a better measure of the relarive power of the va ria bles in Table
15.l. The measure of civics cou rse involvement is a dichotomy, whi!e the measures of
involvement in clubs or student government have four categories running from " not ar aH
active , to 'very active.,,
426 Voice and Equality
school experiences, there is che danger uf an omitted variable;
chat is, that sorne unmeasured taste for activity is responsible for
both .. activity while in high school and subsequent política!
participa tion. In spite of these concerns, we are given sorne
encouragement by the fact that the variables do not ali behave in
the same way. Taking part in school sports <loes not predice
future activity in the way that participation in high school
government or clubs does) indeed, arhlctic participation is
negatively related to subsequent política! involvement.
Moreover, other factors that might be ex,) pected to have an
equally strong impact on political participa,< tion-for example,
fellow studencs who are interested in politic·s ora school
atmosphere conducive to debate or complaint-do no,t. In short,
although we must interpret these data with caution, they present
an interesting indication of how early experiences affect later
civic life.
In the analysis that follows, we shall use three variables that
derive from early experiences: exposure to política! stimuli in the
family; educational attainment; and, as a measure of both early
interest in being active and organ.izational and communications.
skills, high school activity, a combination of the measures of ac-.•.
tivity in high school government and other high school clubs. 11
INST!TUTIONAL INVOLVEMENTS
As adults, individuals enter the institutional realms of the work
.i
place, organizations, and churches. The sorting process by whích
adults end up in institutions represents a series of constrained ·•
choices, choices shaped by the kinds of variables we have been ·.··.·
discuss ing- the characteri stics with which one is born as well as
early experiences at home and in school. The measures of institu
tional affiliation are ones that, having been used extensively in our
11. Although raking a civics course is positively relatcd t(l larer politica l ac rivity io Table
15.1, for severa! reasoos we are not in cludin g ir in ou r analysis . First, since four out of five
report taking such a course, rhe measure does nor discr iminare well amon g respondents.
In additi.on, ch e ch aractcri sr ics associared with high schnol activit tes are closer to our
theorc tica l interese in the acquisition of co mmunications and organizational civic ski lls.
Finally, the civics course variab le., unlike the measurcs of high school activity, does not
rcmain a significant predictor of latcr activicy once othcr adule var iables are added ro che
analysis. Thus, given the necessit)' of simpli fying our model as we move along, it seemed
wise to use che high school activities variable only.
Tbe Roots of Participatory Factors 427
analysis, are familiar: job leve!, affiliation with non -política! or
ganizarions, and frequency of religious attendance.
PARTICIPATORY FACTORS
As demonstrated by the earli.er analysis, these institutional affilia
tions are the source, in turn, of various factors that influence the
amount and kinds of política! activity. The factors we shall con
sidcr are thc oncs introduccd in preceding chapters. I Iowever, in
order to simplify a complex analysis, we use sorne summary meas
ures. Let us enumerare these facto rs.
Resources. We focus on family income and civic skills. As be
fore, we simplify the analysis by using a summary of the three
different skill measures- skills pracciced on the job, in non-politi
cal organizations, and in church. In addition, we use the measure
of vocabulary skill as a general measure of cognitive and commu
nica tions ability.12
Política! Engagement. We use two measures, political int erest
and política! information, as measures of affective and cognitive
engagement, As we argued in Chapter 12, where we originally
discussed these variables, política! information may also legiti
mately be considered as a resource. We believe ir indexes both
engagement and skill.13
lnstitutional Recruitment. As in Chapter 13, we sum the num
;·
ber of requests for política[ activity on the job, in non-política!
0
organizations, and in church to creare a scale measuring exposure
to institutional recruitment.
i
The Data Analysis
Our dat a analysis invol ves a series of OLS regressions in which
rhe variables from each step are used to predice the variables at
the succeeding step. As we develop the analysis suggested by
12. We do not con s ider free rime as a reso urce at chis point in thc anal ysis bm shall
consider it later in che chaprcr. The root s of free time are different from those associated
with che focrors wc are disc ussing here.
13. We omit the eflicacy and part isa nship measures as pa rt of rhe simplificatio n o.f the
analysis. Unlike politic I interese a11d information, neither variable was significant in the
rwo -srage lc ast squares analysis. (See C hapter 12, Tab le 12.6.)
428 Voice and Equality
Figure 15.l we add new variables into the equations. At any stage.
the full effects of any variable on a dependen! variable are its direq
:, effect at that stage plus any indirect effects through other
variables• that appear at earlier stages in the model. Thus, we use
the four, initial background characteristics (parents' education,
sex, race and ethnicity) to predíct youth experiences (education,
high sebo participation, and politics at home). At the next step, we
use thes seven variables (the four initial background variables plus
the thr pre-adult variables) to predict each of the institutional
a.ffiliatio variables. For example, the full impact of parents'
educat10n o institutional variables such as job level is its direct
effect in th regression predicting job level plus any indirect effects
from th preceding steps in the analysis, such as the effect that
parent. education might have on the respondent's job level through
th impact of parents' education on the respondent's education. 1 4 B
fore turning to the analysis of the data, we offer sorne commen
on ou.r choice of statisticai method.
CAUSAL DIRECTION, TRIANGULAR SYSTEMS,
AND 01.S REGRESSION
The basic analytical method in this chaprer is ordinary least squar ..
(OLS) regression analysis, which we described in Chapter 10. A
chis point we need to put it into the context of thc long causa
chain we are exploring in this chapter, a chain that runs fro
characteristics acquired at birth to current political behavior. O.
use of this technique is based on the assumption, one we consid•.
reasonable that we are estimating a recursive, triangular system{
A triang lar system is one in which the arrows linking variable
in a chain of causality aligo in one dircction-as they do in Figur
15.l. Variables earlier in the chain, such as " initial characteri
14. Consistent with what we have done in the prcvio us chapters, we carry addi th ·
controls as we move rhrough rhe chaprer. These are control, for age (through a set
dummy variables), gender, race or ethnicity, being Catholic, speaking English at home, a1
cirizm ship. These conrrols have little effoct on che resulcs and are noc reported 111 the rabi
Since rney make no sense for understanding pre-adu lt experiences, we add conrrols
whether rhe respondent is working or retired la tcr in rhe chapter. Si nce employment sta .
int eracts with jo b leve! in relacion to sorne of thc partici pation focto rs, we shall deal Wl
ir explicicly.
The Roots of Participatory Factors 429
tics," affect later variables, such as " participation factors," but
these later variables do not affect the earlier ones. This assumption
seems reasonable for the four-stage process illustrated in Figure
. 15.1. In sorne instances- for example, the impact of parents'
· .. e ducational attainment on that of the respondent and, in turn, the
impact of the respondent's educational attainment on a participa
tion factor such as income-the assumptíon seems straightfor
ward. For other connections-for example, the purported causal
link between civic skills and política! participat ion- where the
causal direction might be more ambiguous, the analyses and dis
cussion in Chapters 9, ll, and 12 provide evidence for the as
sumption about the di.rection of causality.15 In sho rt, we think it
appropriate to consider this a triangular causal system.
The analysis depends on a second basic assumption: that the
omitted variables that are incorporated in the error terms in the
equations implied in Figure 15.1 are not correlated with one an
other. When error terms are not correlated, a triangular system is
said to be recursive. One way to increase our confidence that the
omitted variables are not correlated is to indude in each equat ion
a set of explanatory variables that is as comprehensive as possible.
Another approach is to estímate the model using two-stage least
squares regression to correct for correlated error terms as well as
for simultaneous causation. We have done this in earlier chapters
for analyses that are part of the overall Civic Voluntarism Model
and have demonstrated that the results for OLS and 2SLS are very
similar. We do the same for the extension of the model across
generations in this chapter.
PRE-ADULT EXPERIENCES
To begin, we use the four initial background characteristics to
predict the respondent's political exposure at home, educational
attainment, and activity in high schoo l. Table 15.2 presents the
results of OLS regressíons. Not unexpectedly, parents' education
has a largc and significan! effect on all three dependent variables:
f
15. A more rechnical díscussion of this iss ue can be found in Henry Brady, Sídney Verba,
and Kay Lehman Schlozman, "Beyond SES: A Rcsource Model of Partícip ation," American
Political Science Review 89 (19 95): 271- 2 94.
430 Voice and Equaliry The Roots of Participatory Faccors 431

Table 15.2 Predicting Pre-Adu lt Experiences by Initial Characterist ics:/ Predicting Institut ional Involvement s by Initial Character istics and
OLS Regressions (srandardized regression coefficients) \/
Pre-Adule Experiences: OLS Regression (standardized regression
.Predicting: .Politics High Schoo coefficients)
f'. a t H ome Educ at io n Activity ·
Affiliation with
Work Force Job Non-Politi cal Religious
rNITIAL CH ARA C T ERJSTI CS
.42... Pan iciparion Leve!' Organization Artendance
Parenrs' Education .27 * .22'*
Female .00 - .06*• .07 "" L CHARA CTER!STICS
Bla ck - .01 - .05""" .02 - .04" .02 .05'' - .06* ''
- .06' " - .10 "' - .05" - .22'' -.12 * * .01 .12**
Latino
'' -.06*" - .03 .08"*
R' .08 .23 .08 . Ol - .01 -.07*'' .01
Sample size 2,517 2,517 2,517 --.01

• Sign ificam at .05 lcvel. ucation .57** .2 5 ** .02

• • Signilicam at .01 level. olitics ar Home .11 .00 .04* .OS**
igh School Activiry ** .06 ** .12** .15**
-.03
.02 .47 .16 .09
exposure to política! stimuli at home, respondent's education: a 1,652 2,514 2,517
activity in high school. The other initial background_charactens:1 .35
, Sign ific ant a t .05 leve!.
. 2,517
• Significa m ar .01 lev e!.
{being female rather than male and African-Amencan r at¡p: ·. Among worki ng respond e
· rather than Anglo-White ) have more moderate but still s1grnfic n nts.
negarive effecrs on the respondent's ultimare educational attam
ment. Table 15.2 shows the beginning of a complex process. I associated with having a high-level jo b.1 6 Clearly, che main predic tor
subsequent steps we shall disringuish t e paths .from_ pa enr{ : of work force participarion is being male rather than female, with
education chrough the respondent's educat10n, poht1c1zat10n m th education also increasing the likelihood of being employed. Among
home, and actívity in high school. Each influences political activif those working, by far the most important determinant of job leve!
although through different processes. · is the respondent's educational attainment. In addition, with
education taken into account, women and, to a much lesser extent,
INSTJTUTIONAL !NVOLVEMENTS 0 Blacks are likely ro be in jobs requiring less education and training.
Table 15.3, which contains the predicrive equations far the thre Thus women are more !ikely both to be out of the work fo rce
institutional affiliation s, carries the analysis forward to the ne and, when working, to occupy lower positions than men who
step. Many of the results shown there repeat :11aterial presente share their educational attainment. It is interesting that, tak ing into
in Chapter 11, where we considered who gets h1gh-level ¡obs, wh account the respondent's education, there is no direct effecr of
joins organizations, and who attends chur h.. . . parents' education on the job leve! of the respondent. Parental
Job. Understanding the location of the md1v1dual rn h woi:_ influence on job success appears to be rransmitted through
force implies two considerations: whethe r or no:. che md1v1duah its effect on the respondent's educational ar tainme nt.
working and, if so, at what kind of a job. The hrst two coluro
of Table 15.3 contain the relevant data: the left-hand colurr1 16. The measure of wo rkin g is a trichotomy: oot workin g, working part· tim e, and
shows the determinants of work force participation; the wor king full-rime. The measure of jo b level-which is explai ned in Chapter 10- is base d
seco·... column contains-for those with jobs-data about the o n the edu cat io n and on-the- jo b trainio g it requ ires.

factor
432 Voice and Equality
The Roots of Participatory Factors 433

To simplify our analysis, as we move forward through the variables shown in Tables 15.2 an d 15.3. Because the data are
argumem, we retain measures of work force participation and job complex, !et us highlight the major points.
leve!. However, we report only che coefficients for job leve!.
Ordi narily, the work force participation variable has no effect. THE DOMINANT ROLE Of ED UCA T IO N
Where it does, we comment on it. Education is rhe prime factor in most analyses of políti ca!
Non-politica/ O rgani zationa l Affiliation. Education is the single activity. The data in Table 15.4 help us to understand why.
best predictor of affi!iation with a non-political organization. The Educarion has a sígníficant dírect role with respect to each of the
other substantial effcct comes from having been active in high:
participation factors. It affecrs the acquisition of skills; it channels
school, presumably reflecting both skills obtained as a high school é
opportunities for high levels of income and occupation; it places
activisr and a propensity for activity. ··
individuals in institutional settings where they can be recruited to
Church Attendan ce. Consistent with what we have seen, church
political activ ity; and ít fosters psychological and cognitive
attendance is the exception to the strong association between f
engagement with politics. Scholars have sometimes asked why ed
education and institutional affiliation. While education plays a /
ucation is so im portant when it comes to political participation. Is
strong and significant role in relation to jobs and organization, it .:
it skílls, psy chological engagement, being in a network of
has no effec"t on religious attendance. Wíth respect to church •.·
recruitment, or the good job and income to which it provides
attendance, we see in Table 15.3 the familiar pattern whereby
access? Table 15.4 makes clear the answer: Ali of these are
other things being equal-wornen and Blacks are active. As with
components of the role of educatíon in participatíon. Moreover,
organizational involvernent, acrivity in high school is related ro
the direct impac t of edu cation is compounded by its indirecr
attendance at religious servíces. In addition, parental education is >:::
effects. Let us consider the role of education with respecc to each
negarively related to the responde nr's church attendance. We re- ;··
of the participatory factors. Education and Jn come. Education is
turn to the secularizing effect of having well-educated parents at · ,
the prime mover when it comes to rhe economic position of rhe
the end of this chapter. ·i
individual. It ís a dominant force in determining income, which,
Overall, the pattern of predictive variables for institutional in- <.
as we saw in Chapter _12, is a crucial political resource
volvements varies from institution to institution. No single vari-;
especially when it comes to the increas ingly important activity of
able has a powerful irnpact on affiliation across all three domains .·
mak ing carnpaign contributions. As shown in Table 15.4,
of adult non-política! involvement. Educacional attainrnent, so
education has direct consequences for ín come. In addition, as
critica! for job leve! and organizational involvement, has no role
indicated in Table 15. 3, education influences
when it comes to attending church. The youth exposure vari ables-
íncorne indirectly rhrough irs irnpact on job level.
which affect organizational and church involvement, but not job
Education and Vocabulary Skill. As we rnight expect, education
level-appear to lead to a broader social involvernent by the
is closely related to vocabulary skill. In this case, rhe direction of
individual. We turn now ro the forward links to parricipatory
causality is ambiguous but, for our purposes, irrelevant. It is nor
factors.
clear whether education develops vocabulary, or whether people
with good verbal skills stay in school. With respect to our enter
Participatory Factors prise, ít is not necessary to assign causal prioríty. As we saw in
Chapter 11, cognitive ability is a prime resource for politics-as
The data in Table 15.4 show the predictive equations for the sixi
it is for rnany other forms of endeavor.
participatory factors we have used before. The ful! effect of the•·
Education and Civic Skills. Education develops civic skills. Not
various predictive variables involves as well the índirect impact of
only does schooling itself foster communications and organiza
tion al skills, but educational atraín rnent is also a principal factor
434 Voice and Equality
The Roots of Parricipatory Factors 435

l'r w 't

bN *• •* ** in the exercise of civic skills in adult institutions. In thís regard,

""': C:
1 1 1 00 e:e : "' O' \ education plays both a direct and an índirect role. As we have said
so often, without being on the scene, one cannot practice civic
skills in a non-political setting. As we saw in Table 15.3, those
with higher levels of education are more likely to have high-level
* *..:.
"" *-:r ** 'I: 'r
jobs ar to be in organizations- though not to attend church serv
m o ,-.. .{ (l"'f',J \C r-... -;w
"1 -['. *
e :' ; e : e :1
'-O
1
'=""" ....-1 ,-...{
C; ices. Furthermore, the data in Table 15.4 indicate that, even taking
into account affiliation with institurions-that is, with measures
of insticutional affiliation in the equation--education plays a ma jor
direct role in determining who has opportunities to exercise
skills.17 Thus, it has dual implications for the exercise of civic
skills- placing individuals in institutional positions from which
skills can be acquired and affecting the likelihood that they will
develop skills once they are there.
Edu cation and Institutional Recruitme nt. The main effects on
..
* , ,. *
O\ \D N N )'r * **
insticutional recruitment are, as one might expect, the measures of
involvement in those instirutions. (T he apparent anomaly in Table
.
C:C:'"""'.C:
1 1 e : e: e :
lr; i O ' \ l.r ¡
15.4 is the absence of an effect for job leve! on the recruitment
1
measure. The mam effect on recruitment on the job is being
employed, not che kind of job one has. The beta weight for the
:·,* * *
measure of work force particípation, m the equation but not
','r * *
N* ,..... reponed, is .09, significant at .001.) However, in a pattern analo gous
r"""', N 00
C: l"'! ('
to that discussed far the antecedents of political skills, edu cation has
both an indirect and a direct influence on processes of political recm
*
-4

r-,. "1
e: e: e: e:
1t

,· 'r N ,_,., ..
O\ ,.,.,
r: C:-;
...,
o
*'ir, *.,,

e:oo e:
O\
e:
N
itm ent in non-political institutions. The data in Ta
ble 15.3 demonstrated the consequences of educacional attainment
for occupational leve! and organizational affüiation (though not
1 1 1 1
for church attendance ). Those presented in Table 15.4 indicate
that, as with civic skills, educacion has a direct impact on political
recruitment among those affiliat ed.
Education and Political Interest and In formation. Table 15 .4

17. Ed uca rion a ffects rhe acquisition of civic sk ills on the jo b and in organ izarions,
but 110 1 i n chu rch. [f we look at rhe measures of skills acqu ir ed in each of the rhree doma
ins separa tely, rarher than ar a com posite skill rneasurc as in Tab le 15 .4, we find char
educat ion has a su bstantial and sta tist ic ally signi ficant effect on rh e acquisitio n of
skills on rhe job and in o rgani,,a tions-e ven cont rolling for a ffiliati on. Thc beta weights
are ,l 4 and .07 respccrively ( both significa nt a r the .01 levd ). The bet a weighr for chur ch
skills is an insignifica nc .02.
436 Voice and Equality
confums a finding from Chapter 12: education fosrers politic
engagemem. Educated citizens are more likely to be interested'"
and, especially, ínformed about politics. Severa! other correlates
political interest and information. are also worth noting. Pre-ad·
experiences influence política! engagement in adulthood. Activi
in high school is associated with both polit ica l interest and info
mation. While it has no direct effect on other participatory factoÍ;
political stimulation at home has a significant impact on politié
information and, especially, political interest. In addition,
volunta' involvements are related to política! engagement. While
chu[ attendance increases political interest, affiliation with a
non-poli cal organization enhances both political information
and, es •·· cially, political interest.
In short, these data hig hlight the multiple paths by which ed
cation influences the development of the factors that foster pa:'
ticipation. Education has a direct impact of varying strength·
each of the six factors sum ma riz ed in Table 15.4. Through·
influence on job level and organizational involvernent, educati
has additional indirect consequences for all of these factors.
Education and the Growth o( Participation: A Note. We
shou make clear that, in placing education at the center of the und
•. standing of participation and in specifying its multiple effects .
activity, we are not arguing that aggregate changes in the level ·.
education of the population will be associated with commensuraf
changes in the aggregate leve! of parti ipation. It is well know
that, over the past generation, in.creasing educational attaínm eii:
has not been accornpanied by parallel increases in political activit
In fact, over the period there has been unambiguous erosion in ··
im po rta nt , although atypical, form of participation, voring. 18
There have been numerous attempts to explain this, includi
the decline in strength of the political parties and disillusionme . with
candidates.1 9 Another possibility is that when it comes t
18. Richard A. Brody called attention to this in "T he Puzzle of Political Participati·
in Amer ica," in The New American Political Systtmz, ed. Anthony King (Washington, D.C
American Enterprise lnst it ut e, 19 78), pp. 287- 324. . <
19. See, for instance, Rich ar d A. 13rody, "The Puzzle of Participation''; Paul R.
Abramsd" and John H. Aldrich, "The Decline of Electoral Participation in the United
States," Ame°
The Roots of Participatory Factors 437
:; parttc1pation, it is relative pos1t1on in the educational hierarchy
that counts. Thus, at any moment in time, education plays a
: significant role, but over time it <loes not lead to more activit y.2 0
, we cannot solve this puzzle. What is important frorn our perspec
i tive is that at any moment in time, education plays a major role
·• in determining who is active and who is not. Indeed, at the same
\ rime as education has been going up and turnout going clown, the
i strong relationship between e<luL:atiun ami activity has remained
remarkably steady.2 1 These data suggest that the long-terrn struc
tural relationship between education and activity is unlikely to
change.
The Parental Legacy
Among the rnost fascinat ing data in Tables 15.2, 15.3, and 15.4
are those that delineare the various paths by which initial back
. ground affects the accumulation of participatory factors. Perhaps
the main road for the intergenerationa l transmission of political
: involvement is parents' educarion. Its principal effect on the par
ticipation factors listed in Table 15.4 is indirect-through che
: can Politiwl Science Revieu: 76 (1 982 ): 502-521; Lee Sigelman, et al., "Voring and Non
\ Voring: A Multi-elecrion Per spectivo," Am erican J o u rnal of Political Science 29 (1985):
o' 749-765; Ruy A, Teixeira, Why Americans Don ·'t \lote: Tumout Declme in the United
: Sta t es, 1960-1984 ( New York: Greenw ood Press, 1987); Corol A. Cassel and Rob ert C.
'-: .Luskin, "Si mple Explana tions of Turno ut D clin ," Ame,·ican Política/ Scierice Revi ew 82
(1988): 1321- 1330; Warren E. MiUer, " The Puule Transformed: Explaining Declining
Turnout, " Political Behavior 14 (1992): 1-43; and Ruy A. Teixei ra, The Disa¡, pearing
American Voter (Washin gton, D.C.: The Brno k ings Instit urion, 1992).
20. See Norman H. Nie, Ja ne Junn , and Kenneth Stehlik-Berrv, Education and Citizen
·, ship in America (Chicago: Univ ersit y o f Chicago Press, forthco ing ).
· 21. In an equatio n predic ting an overall scale of po lit ical activity (w ith income and age
in th e equario n), the standar d,zed coefficient for educat io n is .33 ín 19 6, 7 .37 in 1987,
aod
' .38 in 1990. (The 1967 coelficienr is calculated from the data frorn the survey used in
e Sidney Verba and Norman H. Nie, Participatioti in America [New York: Harpér and Row,
· 1967]; the 1987 coefficient is from the Narional Opinion Research Ceoter's Geoeral Social
Survey of that year; and the 1990 data come from rhe Citizen Parricipation Stud y. ) Similar
findings are reponed in Jan E. Leighl ey and Jonathan Nagler, "Socio-Economic Bias in
. Turnout: 1964-1988: The Voters Remai n the Same," American Política/ Science Review
· 86 (1992): 725-737. They find that alrh ou gh voting has gone down, the relationship
berween voring and socioeconomic cla,s has srayed the same. See ,1lso Nie, Junn , and
Stehlik-Berry, Educatio11 and Citizenship in America.
438 Voice and Equ ality
educari o n of the child. Still, íts consequence s for rhe respondent's
edu cario nal attaínment imply that it deserves sorne credít for the
multíple ed ucationa l effects just díscussed. Over and above the
impa ct of parent s' educa tion on the respond ent's education and,
thro ugh educational attainment, on job leve[, ir has a dir ect effe ct
on the respondent's income- wh ich presumably reflects the ínter
generacional t ra nsmission of wealth as well as opportunitíes. In
add it ion, parental education has a moderately strong direc t effect
on vocabulary skílls and a somewhat weaker one on politica l
inte rese and inform ation.
An especially inreresring stream of intergeneratíonal transmis sion
is the one that runs thro ugh respondent s' political expos ures while
yo ung. Parents ' educati o n has a strong effec t on the likeli hood that
respond ents wíll be exposed to politi cal stimuli in the hom e and
active in high school. In turn, those early poli tical exposurcs have
long -term implic a tion s. They are strongly associ ated with interest
in polirics. Inde ed, exposure to politic s a t home and involvement in
school acti vities are the strongest predictors of polirical interest. A
distinction between these two variables is noteworthy: act ivi ty in
high school is positively relared ro the acquisition of civic s.k ills, but
exposure to politics in the home has no effect. This diffe rence
wou]d suggest that one pro ba bly learns o rga nizatíonal and
communicarions skills more effectively by do ing rh an by watching-
that is, by taking part in high school governmenr and clubs than by o
bs rvirig polirically act ive parents and listening to polirical
discussions at home.22
The data confirm the existence of two paths from charact eristics
of one generation to the acquis ition of the factors rhat foster
políti ca! parti cipation in the next. The starting point of each one
is the educarion of rh e parenrs, and respond ents' educacional ar
tainm ent figu res im portan tly in both. One path is more or less
socioeconomic. The main effect along this path is the impact of
parenrs' educa tion on respondenrs' education and from there to
the job and income levels thar they ultimately attain. The second
path runs through political stimul ario n in the home and schooL
22. That we find such differe nrial effect among early exper iences also lends Cl"cde oce
to our belief rhat rhe ren-ospective quesrions :ihout school and famil)' do not a ll rep(esent a
projectio n backwards of rhe currenr srare of the respondent .
T he Roots of Participatory Factors 439
Well-educated parents are more likely also to be pol it ically active
and to discuss politics at home an d to produce children who are active
in high school. Growing up in a poliri cized household and being
active in high school are associated with política! engage ment as
an adult.23
The data to this point illustrate a complex process of the accu
mulatio n of parricip arory factors. The famiJy plays a major role
by chann eliug the ne:xt generation into socioecon omic positions
and imo insti tutions associated with those posirions. Through this
process, resources for political activity are acq uired. The family
also provides direct política! stim ul i, which in turn arouse political
interest. Although there are many links from the family to the
part icipatory facrors, the key l ink is education. Educarion, in turn,
has much of its impact through inv olvem ents with non-political
adule institutions.
The Origins of Free Time
To round out our analysis, we co nsider one last resourc e, free time.
As we saw in Chapte r 10, ir has a somewhat different origin from
other resour ces. Unlike other resources, free time is not rooted in
such stra tifica tion varia bles as education al or occupational leve!.
Inst ead, it is related to life c.i rcumstances, especially wor k ami
family commitmen ts. Table 15.5 presents the results of an OLS
regression that repears the analysis in Ta ble 10.1 but adds the
variables in the life-course model that were used to predice the
other participation factors. 24 The addition of che new variables
leave s the earlier results unchanged. What aff ects the ava il ability
of free time is having a job ( rather than the kind of job), children
(especially pre-schoo lers), and having a wo rk ing spouse. In addi
tion, ali else being eq ua], women have less time rhan men. 25
23. Un fortunately, we did noc ask questions analogou s to rhose just discusscd about
che rd igiou s affiliation and activity of responde nts' parenrs. We were a ble, however, to
ask such a que srion in a smaller follow-up surv ey. We refer to parents' relígious
commírments lare r in t he chapter.
24. The analysis in Tab le 15.5 also contains thc variables for age and other demographic
char acteristics carried as controls for rhe other analyses in this chapter.
25. Since the single grear est con sum er of ot herwise free time is paid work, and since
wornen are less likely than men to be in rhe wor k force an d less likely to work long ho urs
440 Voice and Equality The Roots of Participatory Factors 441

Table 15.5 Predicting Free Time by Initial Character istics, Pre-Adult Table 15.6 Predicting Overall Participation by Initial Characteristícs,
Experiences, Institutional Involvements, and Family Pre-Adult Experiences , Institutíonal Invo lvements, and
Variables: OLS Regression (standardized regression Participatory Factors: OLS Regression (standardized
coefficients) regression coefficiems)
INITIAL CHARACTERISTICS IN!TfAL CH A RAC TERISTICS
Parents' Education .01 Parems' Education .04*
Female -.10''" Female --.03"
Rlack .01 Rlack .02
Latino .00 Latino .03
PRE-ADUlT EXPERIENCES PRE-ADULT EXPERIENCES
Educarion - .01 Education .12'' *
Politics at Home - .02 Politics at Home .04'' *
High School Activity -.03" High School Activity .08'' ''
INSTITimONAL INVOLVEMENTS INSTITUTIONAL INVOLVEMENTS
Working - _51 *'' Job Leve! - .03
Job Leve] .01 Non-Política! Organization _01
Retired .11** Religious Attendance -.01
Non-Political Organization -.01
PARTIC!PATORY FACTORS
Religious Artendance - .04*
Family lncome _09*''
FAMILY VARIABLES Free Time -.02
Married - .01 Civic Skills .14*''
Pre-school Children - .1 5 1 ... '
Vocabulary .05''
School-Aged Chíldren -.08*'" Recruitment .13''''
Working Spouse --.09*'' Political Interest .24''*
Political Informarion .1.2''*
R' .53
Sample size 2,436 R.1 .45
Sample size 2,404
" Significant at .05 leveL
** Significant at .01 leve!. * Significant ar .05 leve!.
Note: Age, Catholic religious preference, citizensh ip, and English ski!\ in the eq, i; amm * * Significant at .01 leve!.
-:, Note: Age, Catnolic religious preference, citizenship, working, retired, and English
skill in the cquation.

participation of the variables discussed earlier. Since they resemble

Explaining Participation
The final stage, quite obviously, is to assess the impact on
activity of the variables in the preceding steps. The analysis
presented in Table 15.6. The data show the direct effects on
if they are, as we pointed out in Chaprer 10, womeo do not, on average, have less free
tbao rnen. However, since women continue to do a disproportionate sha re of the
even if they are employed, they have less leisure than men do with other factors, includi1n¡f
work force parcicipation, controlled_ Por elaboration of tbis the rne, see Ta ble 10.2 and
accornpanying discussion.
the results of the analyses contained in Chapters 12 and 13, these
results should be quite familiar. With the exception of free time
(which, as we shall soon see, becomes significant when corrected
for measurcment error), each of the participatory factors just
discussed-family income, civic skills, vocabulary skill, política!
interest and information, and institutional recruitmcnt-is a pow
erful prcdictor of activity. In contrast, the institutional invo!ve
ment variables introduccd in the preceding step are not significant
once the politically relevant residucs of institutional exposure-the
442 Voice and Equality
exercise of civic skills and requests for political involvemenr-have
been taken into account. By incorporating measures of demo
graphic background and pre-adule experiences-including activity
in high school, a possible measure of a long-term taste for poli tics-
the analysis provides a challenging test of che model pre-., sented
earlier. Nonetheless, the results show unambiguously tha •· the
Civic Voluntarism Model-based on resources, engagement, and
recruitment-holds.
Interestingly, once their intervening effects on subsequent vari+
ables are taken into account, che inicial characteristics have almos .
no direct influence on participation. With other factors cont rolled)
neither being African-American nor being Latino has a dírect
impacc on activity; having well-educated parents has a srnall posi
tive effect and being female a small negatíve effect. We should
underline what this finding rneans . The analysis reported in Table
15.6 <loes noc imply that groups defined by their race or ethnicity,
gender, and parental educatíonal attainment are idenrical in their'·
levels of participation. Quite the contrary. As we have seen in
earlier chapters, there are group differences of varying magn it ude .
with, on average, men and Anglo-Whites sornewhat more active
than women, African-Arnericans, and, especially, Latinos. What
this analysis does is to explain how these attributes are línked
actív ity. Social class, race or ethnicity, and gender are related i···
cornplicated ways to the participatory factors that shape activi ...
The absence of direct effects <loes not reduce the significance
these groups for politics or the política! irnplications of the fac:t
that che government hears more from sorne people, and sorne
kinds of people, than from others.
Finally, the continuing direct effect of exposure to politics in the
farnily and involvement in high school is striking. Over and above
rheir effects on política! activity through política! interese, these
factors have direct consequences for participation. Once again,
chis suggests the rnultiple roles thac the family and school experi
ences play in bringing individuals into politics, indirectly by shap ;
ing opportunities to acquire education, jobs, and income and mo(
directly by providing political stimula tion.26 ·
2 6. We mus t, howc ver, repeat the caurion rhat rh c measure of exposure to politics as·
Thc Roots of Participatory Factors 443
We have cautioned repeatedly about che difficulties in making
causal inferences from cross-sectional data in which sorne of che
explanatory variables-far example, a respondent's recollections
of parental política! accivicy or leve! of politícal interese-are pos
sibly the result rather than the cause of that which is to be ex
plained, political participation. As we have done previously, we
replicated the OLS analysis using two-scage least squares regres
.., sion wíth the six participatory factors from the last step of che
causal chain as explanatory variables and che variables from ear
lier steps in che causal chain and other prior variables as instru
ments.
Table 15.7 , which presents the data, reinforces our earlier con
clusions. With two exceptions, ali the participatory factors are
significant predictors of activity. Civic skills retain their irnpact
even with addicional variables entered into the analysis. Income
and education also are significant. Once the measure of free time
is corrected for u nrelia bili ty chrough 2SLS, it becornes a
significant factor for participation. Furrhermore, che two measures
of engage ment, political interest and política! information, have
significant consequences far political activíty. In short, then, che
Civic Volun tarisrn Model based on measures of resources-time,
tq money, and skills-and política! engagement hold up quite well as
an expla nation of política! participation.
The two variables that are not significant are vocabulary skill
o and institutional recruitrnent. We are not sure why the former does
not have a significant effect on accivicy-except that severa! other
variables in the rnodel overlap with vocabulary skill. Wíth respect
to inscitutional recruitment, we are uncertain. An inventory of our
instruments suggests that we do not have as effective instrumental
variables in relacion to institucional recruicment as we have for the
other rneasures. This means chat the two-stage least squares results
may underestirnace the importance of institucional recruitrnem.
On the basis of che strengch of the results from the OLS analysis,
we suggest, cautiously, thac it makes sense to retain institucional
\ t.r:: child may be contaminared by currcn r polirical invo l verncm . Hence, we would nor want to
overemphnsize che residual effecr of exposu re ro politics at home.
444 Voice and Equality The Roots of Partícipatory Factors 445

Table 15.7 Predicting Overall Partícipation: Two-Stage Least When we repeated the analysis of overall activity reported in Table
Squares Analysis 15.6 for these two modes of participation, we found, once again,
--------------------------·---- that what matters most far making political contributions is family
B SE B Beta
income and what matters most for electoral turnout is political
RESOURCES engagement, especially political interest. In each case, other vari
Education .13 .03 .12** ables are also significant. However, they are much less important.
Vocabulary .01 .02 .02
.09'*
Of particular note is the role of education. Though education
Family lncome .05 .01
Free Time .04 .01 .10*' is generally considered to be the dominant single variable in rcla
Civic Skills (sum) .11 .03 .16"' tion to partícipation, it is insignificant far voting and for making
Citizenship .72 .09 .07"" contributions. We believe that this tells something additional about
POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT education, but what we learn from Table 15.8 is not that educa
Polít ica! lntcrest .50 .05 .49" tion is unimportant. Rather, we learn the way in which it is im
Political Information .11 .06 .13*
portant. For política] contributions, income is the dominant vari
RECRUITMENT able. Education is not irrelevant, howev er, since it plays a major
Recruitment (sum) .04 .14 .02 role in determining income, directly and through occupation. For
(Constant) -2.55 .19 voting, political interest is dominant. But again education is im
R1
portant as a main source of política! interest. (See Table 15.4 as
.37
Sample size 2,389 well as rhe discussion in Chapter 12.) To repeat, we have not
found education to be irrelevant; instead we have specified the
'' Significant at .OS leve!.
• ,. Significanr ar .01 leve!.
different effects of education upon activity. The effect on contri
Note: Insrruments for the 2SLS axe: citizenship, education, vocabulary, speak ing butions is through the socioeconomic path of job and income. The
English at home, family income, working, retired, job leve!, non-political organiutional effect on voting is through the development of política! interest.
affiliation, religious arrendance, Catholic, number of children under eighteen, preschool
children, gender, spouse workíng full or parr-time, Black, Latino, education of parents,
age, ancl (frorn rhe scrccner) policical interese, política! informacion, and partisan
srrengtb..
Sub-Groups and Origins of Panicipation

recruitment in the model. In a model as complexas this, we can,
perhaps, be grateful that we have so few puzzles remaining.
OTHER MODES OF POUTIC.AL PARTICIPATION
Our analysis thus far has concentrated on overall activity. How
ever, as we have seen, making financia! contributions and going to
the polis are forms of political activity that have distincr origins.
Chapter 12 demonstrated that making contributions depends on
having money and on little else; voting depends upon política!
engagement- being politically interested and, to a lesser extent,
infarmed-and requires little cívic skill. Table 15.8 confirms that
these findings hold up when measures of initial background char
acteristics and pre-adult experiences are included in the model.
The model we have developed appears to be a powerfnl one for
predicting political activity across the publicas a whole. However,
the Cívic Voluntarism Model should be relevant for significant
sub-groups of the population as well. We repeatcd the analysis
reported in Table 15.6-predicting overall activity-for the various
groups we have considered throughout this book: men, women,
African-Americans, Latinos, and the poor. The results are pre
sented in Table 15.9. Since there are severa! different groups, a
complex model, and a smaller case base for severa! of the groups,
there is sorne variation in the standardized regression coefficients
and levcls of significance for particular variables across the
groups. Overall, however, rhe basic analysis holds. The measures
of insti tutional involvement do not, by and large, predict
participation.
 446 Voice and Equality The Roots of Participatory Factors 447

Table 15.8 Predicting Time-Based Acts, Voting, Contributions, and Political Predicting Overall Participation for Sub-Groups of the Population:
Discussion by Initial Characteristics, Pre-Ad ult Experiences, OLS Regressíons (standardized regression coefficients)
Institucional Involvements, and Participatory Factors: OLS
Men Wornen Blacks Latinos Poor
Regressions (standardized regression coefficients) ------
Political !AL CHARACTERISTICS
Time-Based
.03 .05* .01 -.06 .04
Acts Voting Contributions
.03 - .ll '' * - .00
-.01 .05* .03
INlTIAL CHARACTERISTICS
.03 -.01 .02 .03 -.03 .06
Parents' Education
Female -.02 .01 - .03
Black .02 .02 .01 ducation .13** .11'"' .19'" · .07 .26'0 '"
Latino .03 - .02 .03 olitics at Home .02 .06* .01 .03 .03
PRE-ADULT EXPERIENCES
igh School Activity .09' "' ' .07" '' .08'' -.01 .14'"'
Education .06'" .03 .04 STITUTIONAL INVOI.VEMENTS
Politics at Home .02 .05'' .03 ob Leve! -.05 .01 .00 -.01 .01
High School Activity .09'"' .06** .03 - .02 .05 -.06 .09'' .03
INSTITITT!ONAL INVOLVEMENfS -.03 .00 .00 .01 .06
Job Leve! -.05'' -.01 -.00
on-Political Organization .03 .02 - .02
.07''* .11** .06 .12*" .03
Religious Attendance -.04* .10'º* -.03 -·.09'' .OJ -.02 .00 -.10
.15 ''* _13,- ,, .26'"' .14* .04
PARTICIPATORY FACTOR$
Family Income . .04'' .30'·'' .05 .05 .01 .05 - .03
.14'' '· 1,,,,, .17'"'' .20** .16**
Free Time .01 -.03 .05*
.17'" º .00 .04 .26''* .23'''' .22'''' .21,.,. .18' " ·
Civíc Skills
Vocabulary - .01 .04'' -.03 .13''* .10''* .08' ' .10* .16''*
Recruitrnent .13'''' .05'' m
.06'"' .43 .46 .49 .48 .41
Political Interest .21'"'· .26**·
.02 1,156 1,248 452 343 425
Political Inforrnation .06''* .12.''"*

R' .24 .36 .14

Sarnple size 2,404 2,300 2,404
-----
' S,gnificant at .05 leve!.
"" SigniliLant at .01 leve!.
impact of the participatory process on representation. As we saw
earlier in Chapters 7 and 8, how well a group is represented
depends on rhe overall activity rate of the group as well as the
The participatory factors-in particular, political interest and the characteristics of the activists drawn from the group. That the par
civic skills developed in recruitment attempts at institutions-that ticipatory process we have described works within social groups
are at the heart of our model are quite potent. means that this process determines not only the average activity
The results in Table 15.9 are crucial for our argument. For one leve! of a group but which group mcmbers become active. The
thing, they show that our model is quite robust; it holds for the same process that determines the leve! of activíty for poor people
public and it holds for significant social groups. In addition, the or for Latinos determines which poor people and which Latinos
fact that the model holds for these groups is important for the are likely to be the activists. If the process produces a bias in what
448 Voicc and Equality Thc Roots of Participatory Factors 449

is communicated across the public as a whole, it may produce a Table 15.10 Education, High School Activity, Government and
similar bias within groups in terms of what activists from thé Politics at Home: Direct Effects on Overall Political
group communicate. We return to this point in the next chaptet Activity and Effects through Other Variables
where we consider the implications of the participatory proces
High School Politics
for the representation of politically relevant characteristics. Education Actívíty at Home
-------
DIRECT EFFECT .12 .08 .04
Youth Variables and Participation: A Summary
Effrcts Through Institutional
Our data show complicated paths from experiences as a youth Involvements:
Job .01 .00 .00
política! activity. Because the analysis in this chapter has Non-Política! Organizations .03 .02 .00
so many variables and such complex results, it may be useful Church .00 .01 .00
summarize the ways in which education, involvement in hi.g Effects Through
school activicy, and política! stimulation in the home affect parH Participatory Factors:
Income .02 .01 .00
ticipation. We present such a summary analysis in Table 15.10;
Free Time .00 .00 .00
which shows the effects of these pre-adult experiences-both di- Civic Skills .02 .01 .00
rectly and through other variables-on political activity. \. Vocahulary .02 .00 .00
Consider the various effects of education. As we have seen, its' Recmitment .02 .01 .00
greatest single effect is direct.27 However, the effects of educatíoh Politícal Interest .03 .04 .04
Política! Information .03 .01 .01
on participation through the impact that education has on insti-/
tutional location and on a wide range of the participatory factors; TOTAL EFFECTS THROUGH .18 .11 .os
OTHER VARIABLES
when added together, are even more substantial than education's
direct effect. The table illustrates the varíous ways in which edu TOTAL EFFECT .30 .19 .09
-------
cation influences participatíon by increasing institutional involve-

27. The figures for direct effects are che standardized reg.ressíon coefficients for th·e "
effects oi education, activity in high school, and politics ar home on activity afrer one haf
controlled for their effects via other variables. The effocrs of education, activity ín high \
school, and home politics on activity rhrottgh other variables are ca!culared as the sum of.i
the effects of the various paths through these other variables to activity. An example shoul. d·
make tbis clearer. 'fake the effect of education on activity that runs tnrough affiliation wit!i
a non-polirical orgarrization (the parh educatíon > organization > activity). This effect is .
the sum of the standardized regression coefficient far the effect of education on organiza, .:
tional affiliation mnlríplied by the standardizecl coefficient for the effect of organizational ·
afliLiation on acrivity plus thc seven additional three stcp paths from educaüon to orgaok ·:
zation to participatory factors to activity (for instance, education > organization > civi:c
skills > activity). The three step paths are the producr of the coefficienrs for each step. Note·':
one feature of the way we sum these índirect effects that cliffers from rhe standard way of :
so doing. In the previous exaruple, the three step path education > organizati011 > cívi{ skills >
activíty could he counted as the dfect of education through civic skills or through··•
organizatíon. We count it as an effect through organization since tbe social process we are ·
describing iovolves tbe effects of education; and the proximate effccc of education is to get .
one into organizations (or a good job), which then has forther consequcnces.
ment (especially voluntary association involvement), by ra1smg
socioeconomic status (especially income), by enhancing civic
skills, and, most strongly, by fostering political interest and
information. The overall impact on política! activity of
participation in high school activities is quite substantial
though less than that of edu cational atta inment . About half of
the effect of thís mcasure is dírect and the other half through
various participatory factors the strongest of these effects beíng
vía the development of political interest. The socioeconomic path
from high school activities through
job and income is quite small.
Political stimulation in the home also has consequences for
política[ activity. It has, however, less effect on política! activity
·
than either educatíon or high school activities. The data in Table
15.10 help us to understand why. Its direct effect is smaller. Its
450 Voice and Equality
The Roots of Participatory Factors 451

effect through the development of political interest is substantial-: Table 15.11 Direct, Indirect, and Total Effects of Pre-Adult and
similar to rhe effects of educational attainment and high school Adult Institutional Involvements on Overall Activity
activity through interest. Political stimularion at home, however,
Direct lndirect Total
has minimal effect through the other possible paths. The politica[ Effect Effect Effoct

involvement of the parents can, thus, be passed on to the child, ) INITIAL CHARACTERISTICS
but its overall in.íluence on political activíry cannot match theJ Parenrs' Education .04 .22 .26
multiple effects of education. · PRE -ADULT EXPERIENCES
The data in Table 15.10 are for the overall measure of politícaL Respondent's Educatíon .12 .18 .30
activiry. If we were to consider political contributions rather tharl High School Activity .08 .J1 .19
Politics at Home .04 .05 .09
overall activity, we would find, not surprisingly, a simpler patterá
for the impact of youth variables. Education has the largest effect. INSTIHJT!ONAL INVOLVEMENTS
Most of this is through income , with much less running through Job ª .02 .05 .07
Non-Política! Organization
other paths.28 Thus, in contrast to the multiple roles played b. f .01 .11 .12
Religious Atrendance - .01 .08 .07
education in stimulating overall political activity by, for example;
fostering the development of civic skills or polirical interest, when a. Tbis includcs tbc effects of working, job leve!, and retired.
it comes to makíng política! contributions, it is the economic.
effects of education-determining job opportunities and influenc.á fifth (.04) goes through the high school activity of the child. In
ing earnings-that are central. addition, there is a .03 indirect effect through política[ discussion
ar home .2 9 The data show how significant effects on activíty run
Family, School, Job, Organization, and Church: from generation to generation. The main way they do so is via the
education that educated parents provide for their children, but
The Role of Institutions
maintaining a stimulating politicaJ environment around the dinner
Citizens move through many institutions during rhe lífe course. table helps as well.
Our analysis has highlighted the way in which these institutions The second section of Table 15.11 contains the summary of the
provide the factors that foster participation, a process that begins direct and indirect effects of pre-adult experiences-repeated here
in the family and continues through adult institutional involvé- { from Table 15.10 for comparison purposes. The powerful role of
ments. In Table 15.11 we summarize these institutional education still stands out, but it is interesting to note that its role
effects( showing the direct and indirect impact that they have on
activity. We begin with the effect of parental education on política!
activity·. The effects are substanrial, but largely indirect, The main 29. The smaller rcmaining effects run through income and engag ement. The <lirect and
indirecf effect (data not shown in Table 15 .11) is through the link in di rect effect s of parents' education a re calculated in a manner sim ilar to t hat in Table
betweerf parental education and respondent's education. Of the .22 15.10. The effect of parents' education on activity through the respondent's education is
calculated as the product of the standardiz ed coefficicnt for tbe effect of parents' education
indirecf : on respondent's education and the total effect of educarion on acriviry. For instance, rhe
effect on activity deriving from parental education, more than half patb parents' education > res(JiJn dent"s edu cation > jo/1 leve/ > income > acti 1Jity is
(.13) goes through the educational level of the child and about a! consid cred to be a component of the effect of parents' education on activity tbrough
respondent's education , not a component of thc effect of parents' edncation 011 activity
through job leve! or income. Again, this makes the most substantive sense in this context.
Tbe dfects of porents' education through other participatory factors ore cakuJated as the
28. Thc total effect of education on giving political contributions is sum of tbose effects thac do not run throug h respondent's ed uc ation.
is direct and .09 ind.irect. Of the larter, .06 is vía income.
 452 Voice and Equality
The Roots of Participatory Factors 453

is only slightly larger than the role of parental education-largely, .

Table 15.12 Predicting Participatíon by Roots in the Community:
of course, because of the link between the two. < OLS Regressions (standardized regression coefficients)
The third section of Table 15.11, in turn, provides summaries :
of the effects of the three adult institutions. As we know from our) Overall Local National
Participation Participation Participation
analyses of the way these institutions function in relation to po
lítica! activity, their effects are largely indirect through the various Years in community .05** .11'' '' .06' •
participation factors that come later in the chain. Table 15.11 \ Home ownership .06** .09* * .02
School-aged children -.03 .01 - .07*"
allows us to compare the relative importance of these three insti
- --- -- -
tutions. Non-political voluntary associations play a Iarger role( R2 .45 .33 .31
than job or religious institutions. The effect of such associations• is Sample size 2,399 2,399 2,399
almost equal to the combined effect of job and religion- under-•i ,. Significant at .05 level.
lining their central role in American democracy. It is interesting, *' Significant at .01 leve!.
further, that the role of job and religious involvement is equaL Note: Other participatory factors and control variables in the equation.

Finally, we can note that the sum of the three institutional effects
is about equal to the effect of parental education.
One of the main themes of our book has been the way in which i
the política! behavior of Americans is rooted in the non-poliricaf
world. Table 15.11 provides data--comparing various non-po lití- <
cal institutions-on how deep these roots are.
? children.32 We entered these three variables into the equation used
Roots in the Community and Religious Attendance
Our analysis of the factors thar foster participation has omitted a.
potentially important one: ríes to the local community. We might
expect that roots in the community-living in one place for a long
time, owning a home, and havíng children in the local schools
would enhance the resources and motivation for política! activity.
Roots in the community would, presumably, increase concern·• •
about local issues, connections to others in the community, and •·•
knowledge about local political customs, leaders, and controver- .·.
síes. The importance of long-term residence in the community has .
often been noted in relation to voting turnout. Highly mobile
citizens are less likely to vote,.1° Furthermore, community attach-\
ment is likely to enhance various other forms of participat ion.3 1 ··
···•.
30. See Wolfinger and Rosenstone, Who Votes?, chap. 3.
31. See thc studies cited ín Lester Milbrath and M. L. Goel, Political Participation: How
< From the perspective of the model we have developed in this
chapter, the role of close ties to the community is particularly
intriguing. We use three measures: the number of years the respon
dent has lived in the community, whether or not the respondent
is a homeowner, and whether the respondent has school-aged
to produce Table 15.6-that ís, the equation to predict overall
participation on the bases of the variables from each of the steps
of the model developed in this chapter. Because the effect of
community attachment is likely to be felt most strongly in con
junction with local activity, we also repeated the analysis for local
and national political participation. 33
Table 15.12 reports the effects of these variables measuring
community rootedness on overall activity, as well as on local and
national activity. Because the effects of the other variables in our
model do not change in any significant way, we report only the
coefficients for the explanatory variables measuring community
rootedness. The data make clear that length of residence in the
and Why Do People Get [n volv ed in Politics?, 2nd cd. (Chicago: Rand McNally Coilege
Pub. Co., 1977), p. 113; and Steven J. Rosenstonc and John Mark Hansen, Mobilizatian,
Participation, cmd Democracy in America (New York: MacMillan, 1993), pp. 157- 159.
·C. 32. See Appendix B.14 and 17 for rhe questions.
·. 33. For the local and nationai particip,uion scales, see Appendix B.1.1.
454 Voice and Equality
Thc Roots of Participatory Factors 455

Table 15.13 Predicting Roots in the Community: OLS Regressions

The data on length of residence in the community are particu
Years in Home larly interesting. Those who have educated parents and who are
Community Ownership themselves well-educated are more mobile and less rooted in their
Parents' Education - .07'' '' -.01 communities. Thus, ties to the community can represent an alter
Female .04'' -.02 native-indeed, one of the only alternatives-to the dominant
Black .07** -.11** force of education and the other socioeconomic stratification vari
Latino -.04'' -.04'" ables associated with it.35 Insofar as long residence in the commu
Rcspondent's Education -.12'"'' .03
.01 .04
nity cnhanccs thc likclihood of participation-and we saw in Table
Politics at Home
High School Activity -.05** .07*"" 15.12 that it does-we have found arare case in which the impact
of education on política! activity is negative. Education is associ
R' .32 .10 ated with mobility and job enhancement and many of the re
Sarnple size 2,489 2,499
sources valuable for participation. At the same time, however, it
• Significanr ar .05 levcl. loosens the community ties that foster activity-especially local
,.,, Significant at .01 level.
Note: Age, Catholic religious preference, working, retired, Eng!ish skill, and
activity. Education <loes not, of course, depress home ownership.
citizcnship in the equotion. Thís effect ís by no means as substantial as the many participa
tion-enhancing effects of education, but it is noteworthy because
this particular indirect effect of education in dampening activity is
community and home ownership are positively related to political
so unusual.
activity, especially activity directed toward local matters. 34
The role of parental education is especially striking. Having
As with the other variables that foster participation, we can ask
about the origin of community attachment. What kinds of people highly educated parents confers mauy advantages. It sets a person
are likely to remain in one place? To be homeowners? Consistent on a course toward civic involvement-as well as economic ad
with our earlier analysis, we seek the answers in the characteristics vancement. It also increases geographical mobility: the children of
educated parents are more likely to leave home and move else
that are with the respondent at birth-gender, race or ethnicity,
where. While mobility may create job opportunities, it <loes un
and parents' education-as well as experiences at home and in
dermine the community attachment that plays a role in enhancing
school. These are, of course, not the only possible determinants of
community involvement.
ties to the community, but they are the variables that are relevant
to our model of the origins of política! partícipation. Table 15.13,
which repeats the analysis in Table 15.3, shows the relationship A NOTE ON RELIGION ANO INTERGENERATIONAL
TRANSMISSION
between these early experiences and the two measures of commu
nity_ rootedness that affect partícipation, years in the community Parents provide an additional legacy beyond the educational op
and home ownershíp. portunities they present to their children. At various places in this
book, we have stressed the role of religious involvement as an

34. In addition, there are differences across various participatory acts in the impact of
these measures of comnrnnity rootedness. They have no effect on giving money, a
moderare effect on time-based acts, and-os we would expect-a strong effect 011 voting
turnout. The coefficients nf a combined measure of years in the community and home
ownership on contributions, tíme-base<l acts, and voting are .03, .05, and .1l
respectívely.
35. In her study of participation in a small Vermont town, Jane J. Mansbridge shows
how the long-term residcnt farmers use that status-and the speciol skills and respect that
accnmpany ir-to counterbalance the skills and self-confidence of the newer, arrículate
ncwcomers who have moved to Vermont from New York and other large cities. Beyond
Aduersary Democracy (New York, Basic Books, 1980), chap. 9.
456 Voice and Equality
alternative path to política! activity, one not connected to the usual
strati.fication variables that structure política! participation. Justas
families can transmitan educational heritage to their offspring, so
might they transmit a religious one. If involvernent in a religious
institution is iníluenced by parental involvement, we would then
have an alternative form of intergenerational transmission.
Unfortunately, although we asked respondents about the edu
cational attainment of their parents in our original survey, we <lid
not ask about their parents' church attendance. In a smaller fol low-
up survey, we were able to re-interview a random sample of about
one-quarter of our original respondents and ask them to recall
whether, at the time chey were growing up, their parents went to
church regularly. Not unexpectedly, respondents whose parents
were regular churchgoers are much more likely to attend church
regularly themselves. Compared with those whose parents rarely
attended religious services, those whose parents attended church
almost every week or more frequendy are twice as likely both to
be regular church attenders themselves and to be active in their
churches beyond attendance at services. Having highly edu cated
parents, however, decreases slightly the Likelíhood that the
respondent will become a church attender. 36 Since those respon
dents whose parents were churchgoing are, themselves, more re
ligiously involved as adults, they obtain che opportunicies far the
development of civic skills and institutional recruitment in their
churches.
Parental churchgoing is also related to community rootedness.
Those whose parents were regular church attenders are likely to
scay in their communities. On average, the children of church-at
tending parents report 6.5 more years of residence in their com
munities than do the children of parents who <lid not attend
church.37 In short, there appears to be a cluster of characteristics
36. Contro.lling for age and the respondent's education, rhe relarionship between parents'
and respondent's chmch attendance is .18 (significant at .001 leve!, N = 507), while the
rclationship between parenrs• education and respondent's church attendance is - .06 {sig
nificant at rhe .05 leve!).
37. The relationship holds up, evco rakiog the educacional leve! of both parents and the
rcspondent into account.
The Roots of Participatory Factors 457
that counterbalances, at lcast in part, the force of education-both
parents' and respondent's-in fostering participation. Families with
less education and families that atcend church pass on a legacy of
community attachment as well as church involvement, offering an
alternative path to activity--especially locally based activity.
In light of thís discussion, it makes sense to introduce the data
on community rootedness into the analyses used to generate Ta
bles 15. l O :rnd 15 .11 in order to re:1ssess the effects of the
respon dent's and parencs' education on participation. We can
calculare the indirect effect of education on local political activity
through education's iníluence on years in the community. The resu!
t is a small diminution of política! activity with increased
educacion-a coef.ficient of about -.01, which is about half the size
of the indirect positive effect of education through ics impact on
income or information. A similar calculation-parallel to that used
for Table 15.11-shows parental education (both through its direct
effect on years in the community and through its indirect effect
vía education on years in che community) to have a negative effect
on local activity of roughly the same magnitude, - .01. Once again,
this is not a major impact, but an interesting counterbalance.
Similar calculations can be made for the influence of parental
churchgoíng on accívíty-38 The impact of parents' religiosity on
política! participation is all indirect. Most of ir comes through the
effect of parental religious involvement on the respondent's church
attendance and the impact, in turn, of church attendance on the
kinds of church-based activicy that lead to the exercise of civic
skills and to institutional recruitment. An addicional increment
also derives from thc impact of parental religious attendance on
length of residence in the community and the effect of the latter,
in tum, on activity. The impact is very small: the effect on overall
participation of parental church attendance is about one-temh the
magnitude of that uf parental education. J9 Nonetheless, in spite of
38. We use the overall measure of activity here sincc church artendance does not
influence local and nationai activ1t)' differently.
39. lf we ca!cu!ate rhe cffects of parental church artendance on political activity exactly
as we did for parenrs' education, as reported in Table 15.11, we fincl a total effect of .028,
which is abom one-tenth che size of rhc figure reponed for parental education.
458 Voice and Equality
The Roots o.f Parricipatory Factors 459

rhe small size of the effect, the process we have described repre 0

add ition, parents who are educated are more likely to expos e tbeir
sents a different, and quite independent, way in which participa
children to politics-by taking part in politics themselves and by
tion can be transmitted from generation to generation. Parental
discussing politics at the dinner rable-which has an impact on
religious involvement, not conn ected to the educational attainment
future political activity by enhancing polirical interest Jacer in life.
· of the child or to the consequent socioeconomic advantages of
Parental education 1,Jnd community roots: Respondents with
educational attainment, thus constitutes a separa te path to activity,
highly educated parents and high levels of education thems elves
are less likely to remain in the community, which, in turn, reduces
From Generation to Generation: A Summary the community ties that foster activity. In this way, parental cdu
cational attainmenr reduces slightly participation in local politics.
We have seen severa! processes by which one generation has an
Parental chur ch atte ndanc e, respondent ' s church att
influence on the political acrivity of the next. One is grounded in
endance, and communit y roots: Parent s who attend church are
the reproduction of social status, the way in which socioeconomic
likely to have children who do likewise, which, in rurn, puts them
position is passed from generation to generation. A second inc
.in a position to acquire civic skills and to be recruited to politics.
volves política! socialization, the more direct transmission of po
In addi tion , churchgoing parents have children who are more
litical orientations. Our data show that both processes are at work,
likely to maintain roots in the community, which also enhances
and thac both have significant effects on political activity. In addi
slightly their later activity.
tion, we have loca red other processes associated with religious ··
commitment and roots in the commtm ity4.0 Indeed, we can isolate
four intergenerational processes. Three begin with the educational Conclusion
leve! of the parents, and rhe last wirh the religious attendance of
This chapter has presented a complex analysis chat attempts to tie
the parents. Two of che processes reinforce che social stratification
together the various strands of our argument about the social
·. of política! participation across the generations and two
sources of political acrivity. There is no single path to polirical
provide· a very partial counterweight to that stratification.
participation. The factors associated with polirical activity-re
Parental education and the so cioeconomi c path to politícal ac
so urces, política! engagement, and institurionally based political
tivity: Highly educated parents pass ontheir advantage to children
mobilization--derive from econornic position in the labor force,
mostly because their children tend also to be highly educated and;
from involvement with voluntary associations and religious insti
thus, to have high-level jobs, to be affluent, and to affiliate with
tutions, and from families and schools. At rhe outset, the family
organizations. These effects, in turn, enhance ali the factors-re
of origin plays a significant role, setting the broad boundaries of
sources, engagement, and recruitment-that fosrer political activity.
che individual's educational and occupational opportu nities and
Parental education and po liticat so cializati on in the home: In ·
providing exposure to political stimuli and to religious institu
tions. Experiences in school build upon the foundation laid at
40. Fer an ana ly sis th a t shows s imilar effects, sec Darren E. Sherkat. and T. Jean Blocker, home. Later on, jobs and economic position produce resources;
" T he Pol i rica l Develop ment of Six ties' Activis ts: Identif yin g ch e Jnflue nce of Class, Gen<le affiliation with secondary institurions produces resources, fosters
r, and Socializa r.io n on Prorest Part icipatio n," Social Forces 72 (1 994): 821- 842. They
political cngagemenr, and provides exposure to requests for políti
lind that pa rents influenced th e future prot est po tencial of their children borh by d irec t po
lítica! socializario n a nd by inf\u encing thei r future aca demic c ar eers. Parallcl to what we fiod ca! activity; and che structure of the family created in adulthood
here; Sherkat and Blocker also show the contras ring influ ences of edu ca ted pare nrs, influences the avai lability of free time.
who se ch il dren were more likely to pro test, and religio us parents, wh ose cn ildr en were les These data enable us to give a fuller account of the process by
s likdy to do so.
which citizens become polirica1 activists. First of ali, the data
460 Voice and Equality

underscore the stratified process by which those who enter the/

world with socioeconomic advantages are in a position to acquire
. resources that foster political participation. The analysis also
illus-} trates the cumulative nature of the process of reso urce
acquisi > tion-advantage building on advantage. Critical to this
process is/ education. Those with hígh levels of educati on are in
a position x to stockpile additional resources beyond tho se
acquired in schooL> Moreover, we demonstrate how this process
extends across gen < erations, with parental education providing
an ímportant initia[ ( condition in the process of resource
accumulation. . .·
The process is clearly biased in favor of those with early advan- i
tage. However, opportunity is not entire ly foreclosed to those\
whose original socioeconomic endowment s are meager. Far one \
thing, the connections posited here represent a series of pro b
abilistic relationships that, although sometimes fairly stro ng, are
far from deterministic. Having well-educated parents is certa inly <
a boon to obtaining a good education, but intergenerational tra ns
mission is far from perfect. In addition, we have specified alterna
tive paths to political activity that are not as dependent on socio
economic position and the resources that it confers. One snch path
is political and derives from parental political involvement. A
political atmosphere at home-in which polítically active parent s
discuss politics around the dinner table- leads to politically inter
ested children and, in turn, to political activity.
Another alternative path involves att achment to the community.
Deep roots in the community ate associated with participation in
local politics. Respondents with churchgoin g parents reap sorne
compensatory benefits far partícipation: they are more likely to
stay in the community and, like their parents, to attend church.
Moreover, church involvement can provide civic skills and oppor
tunities for political recruitment to those who might oth erwise be
resource-poor. These alternative effects on parti cipation are quite .
small in magnitude and, thus, fall far short of fully counter balanc
ing the impact of various forces in stratifying participatory inp ut.
Nevertheless, they are notewort hy because they are contrary to
what we ordinarily expect.