ABSTRACT
The chapter proposes a new empirical approach to measure political participation, including both conventional and new forms. For this approach, a standardized set of questionnaire items is expanded with an open-ended question on non-political activities used for political purposes. Analyses of newly collected survey data show a remarkable taxonomy of political activities. Systematically utilizing the book’s conceptual approach—the conceptual map presented in Chapter 4—we evaluate whether these acts fit different definitions of political participation, and empirically examine their place within the broader structure of participation (using principal component analysis) and their main antecedents (using logistic and Poisson regressions). The findings underline the need to use a broad conceptualization of political participation when dealing with changes in democratic societies: Whereas individualized forms of participation can be seen as expansions of the existing protest mode of participation, digitally networked forms of participation apparently establish a new mode of participation.
