Political Participation - Concepts and Theories

This paper aims to review the concepts and theories of political participation. The first part presents classic definitions of political participation offered by Verba, Barnes, and Kaase. Subsequently it shows how the repertoire of political activities has changed since the time these classical concepts were formulated. The paper argues that the transformation of political participation happened in three distinct dimensions, i.e. goals, targets, and space. On this basis, drawing on Teorell as well as Rosenstone and Hansen, a new definition of political participation as "action by ordinary citizens directed toward influencing some political outcomes: distribution of social goods and norms" is introduced. The second part of the paper deals with theories of political participation. It presents a three-level explanatory model that corresponds to the level of analysis used by particular theories: micro (individual), meso (intermediary), and macro (structural) levels. Last but not least, the paper focuses on major theories explaining political participation: individual resources and political values (micro), social capital (meso), and modernization and institutional explanation (macro).