ABSTRACT
Citizen-based collective action in voluntary associations is generally perceived as critical to the health of democracy. Such activity is seen as enriching the voting version of democracy. The commonplace assumption is that the less the extent of citizen involvement (political and social), the greater the democratic failure: more is definitely more attractive. As Oliver (1993: 273) states, before the work of Olson inaction was explained, “in terms of individual ‘apathy’ (which was, of course, indicated by the failure to act) or by some sort of communal deficit [. . .] which prevented people from acting on their interests.” Strangely political science has absorbed the argument of Olson, but still tends to see low participation as the consequence of some sort of pathological personal apathy.
