Conventional and Unconventional Participation: Activism, Social Movements, and Interest Groups

Political participation is often conceptualized as spanning a spectrum from conventional modes of behavior, which are accepted by the norms of society and have the greatest sanction under the law, to unconventional modes of behavior, which stretch the boundaries of the acceptable and not infrequently cross over into the illegal. As depicted in Figure 8.1 , the most conventional of all modes of political participation is holding elected or appointed public office.