ABSTRACT
Political participation changed rapidly in democratic societies in the last decades. Empirical evidence on political participation from the European Social Survey, a major cross-national survey, shows large cross-national differences accompanied by relative stable levels of participation. Yet empirical studies focused on participation relying on the internet or internet-based applications display rapid increases of these forms of participation in many countries. Although this demonstrates a growing interest in understanding the broader role of new forms of participation for democracy, measuring such new forms of participation presents a serious challenge. These distinct empirical results clearly corroborate the direct dependency of conclusions about the development of political participation on the methodologies and instruments used, underlining the need for empirical improvements.
