Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Abstract: Voting behavior and political engagement in general are largely thought to be necessary to the continuance of strong democracy, as they allow people to maintain power over the actions of their government. Prior research demonstrates that income is one factor that positively correlates to voter turnout (Avery 2015) but there is very little available on what causes people to engage in political activities outside of the voting booth. There has been a steady increase in political protests since the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and recently organizations such as Black Lives Matter, Moms Demand Action, and the Sunrise Movement have contributed to massive protests that span the country (Caren, Ghoshal, Ribas, 2011). With the increasing prevalence of political engagement outside of voting, it seems relevant to explore whether there exists an association between political action and perception of representation, and whether that association differs between voting and other forms of political action. Cascio and Shenhav provide evidence that women are more likely to engage in informal political participation than men are (2020) and a different study provides evidence that protest participation involves a certain amount of risk that young people, unmarried people, and childless people are more likely to engage in (Schussman 2005). Using data from the 2012 Outlook on Life Survey, this study analyzes the association between perceived representation, particularly in regards to the U.S. Congress, and engagement in political activities that differ from voting. The results of analyzing the sample of adults over the age of 18 who responded to all of the questions on the survey found that there was a significant statistical correlation between political action and representation for people who felt they were extremely well represented. Additionally, when factoring in age, older people (60+ years old) were significantly more likely to engage in more political actions than younger people. This is potentially due to the fact that people in that age range have more free time due to largely being retired, and also have more disposable income. In-line with Schussman’s results from 2005, people in this age range may experience a lower level of family commitment than those who have young children or spouses that take up much of their time. Understanding who participates in political actions may allow political groups to understand how to gain attendance at their events, as well as who might be underrepresented and therefore feel lower political efficacy. Future research might benefit from considering a measurement for political apathy or efficacy, or by weighting political actions based on their time-commitment or risk-factors to better compare political actions to each other.
PerceptionsOfRepresentationVSPoliticalEngagement