Organizational Membership and Civic Competence

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Organizational Membership and Civic Competence

• Written by Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney
  Verba
• Interpreted by Erin Turcot

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Does membership in voluntary associations lead to
political competence and democratic citizens?

• Factors to Consider
• Types of Organization
• Perceptions of Political Competence
• Activity within Organization
• Multiple memberships

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Types of Organizations

• Organizations Representing Economic Interests
• Social Organizations
• Religious Organizations
• Civic-political Organizations
• Fraternal Organizations
• In the U.S. 57 of people surveyed participate
  in voluntary organizations and American women are
  more likely to participate in organizations than
  women in Great Britain, Germany, Italy, or Mexico

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Are Organizations Concerned with Public
Affairs/Politics?

• Some are purely social
• Some are overtly political
• However, they all affect political attitudes
  because of
• Social interactions
• Opportunity to participate in the decisions of
  the organization
• General broadening of perspectives that occur
  from social activity
• So, some individuals may not perceive their
  organizations as having a political role,
  however, these organizational functions are
  political

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Perceptions of Political Competence

• Hypothesis members of voluntary associations
  should feel more confident of their ability to
  influence the government
• Results
• 79 of people in political organizations
  perceive themselves to be politically competent
• 70 of members in non-political organizations
  perceive themselves to be politically competent
• 54 of non-members perceive themselves to be
  politically competent

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Conclusions of Political Competence Hypothesis

• Even members of non-political organizations still
  have a greater sense of political competence than
  non-members.
• This shows that latent political functions are
  performed in voluntary
• associations

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Activity within Organization

• Points to Consider
• Are members actively or passively participating?
• Is there a central authority?
• Does participation effect sense of competence?

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Organization Participation Findings

• The United States as compared to other democratic
  nations has a higher percentage of participants
  in leadership roles.
• People with greater competence are more likely to
  participate
• Membership participation leads
• to greater sense of political
• competence
• In the U.S, female organization members are more
  likely to be active participants than men

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Multiple Memberships and Politcal Competence

• Members in more than one organization show
  greater competence
• U.S compared to other countries
• U.S. 55 of org. members belong to 1 orgs
• Britain 34
• Germany 27
• Italy 20
• Mexico 8

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Conclusions

• Organizational membership is directly related to
  participation
• Org. members are self-confident and active
• Membership in politically-oriented organization
  leads to greatest political competence
• Active membership leads to greater political
  competence
• Most importantly, membership within a
  non-political or passive membership have greater
  impact on political competence than someone who
  is not in an organization

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Conclusions Democratic Citizens Theory of Mass
Society

• Democratic Citizens are competent, active, and
  open with their opinions
• Theory of Mass Society Democracy depends on mass
  participation
• Voluntary Associations are small political
  systems where people are trained to participate,
  and gain a sense of political competence
• This allows alternative channels of recruitment
  into politics

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Source

• Hodgkinson, Virginia Michael W. Foley. The
  Civil Society Reader. Hanover, NH University
  Press of New England, 2003