Participation in America

In Participation in America, we consider two general political processes: that by which citizens come to participate in political life and that by which their participation affects the responsiveness of government leaders. This involves the explication of some general variables - measures of various forms of political participation, measures of social status, of political attitudes, of voluntary association memberships, of citizen policy preferences, of leader policy preferences, and the like - and statements about expected relationships among them. It is by entering these specific values as they existed in the United States in the late 1960s that we see how these processes work in that particular context, and is why this work is relevant to American politics. Read more