Demographics and Non-Traditional Civic Participation: A Data-Driven Learning Guide

Goal & Concept

Goal

The goal of this exercise is to examine the relationship between demographic characteristics and different forms of civic participation. Crosstabulation will be used.

Concept

Civic participation can be defined as involvement in activities intended to influence public policy and leadership. The most common form of civic participation is voting, but there are several other forms of civic participation as well. Some of these more non-traditional forms of civic participation are volunteering to work for a campaign, donating money to a campaign, and protesting. These forms of civic participation, in addition to voting, give people the opportunity to voice their concerns and opinions regarding candidates or issues. While these non-traditional forms of participation do not directly impact vote totals, they do often gain the attention of the media and of candidates, thus causing a change in candidates' courses of action. In this way, non-traditional civic participation can influences policies and elections.

Demographics and civic participation are very closely linked in political science research. Most research examining the relationship between demographics and voter turnout suggests that, on average, older, higher income, white people have a better turnout rate than other voters. While there has been less research done on demographics and non-traditional civic participation, there is reason to believe that the same type of relationship exists. In the context of this exercise, it is expected that older, wealthier respondents participate more often, on average, than younger, less wealthy respondents.

Research questions regarding non-traditional civic participation and demographics include:

• What is the relationship between certain demographic categories and volunteering for a campaign, contributing money to a campaign, and taking part in a political protest?
• Which forms of non-traditional civic participation are most popular among all groups?
• How do elected officials and candidates respond to non-traditional forms of civic participation?

Goal & Concept - Dataset - Application - Interpretation & Summary - Bibliography