ABSTRACT
This chapter first considers the nature of the face-to-face discourse that takes place within the various political organisations. It then examines what goes on within discursive structures of these organisations and how the respondents actually feel about these discursive processes. This dimension of political participation feeds directly into Jurgen Habermas' concern over the ways in which discourse proceeds within the structures of the political public sphere. The impressions and meanings that participants take from their participation are central to this issue. The chapter further considers the ways in which participants come to adopt certain norms within political participation, and to then analyse the nature of those assumptions. It finally considers the long-term effects of involvement in the different organisations, and reflects upon the extent to which the most politically experienced respondents have come to question various aspects of political participation.
