The Influence of Patriotism on Civic Engagement: Observational and Experimental Evidence

• In Event: Campaigns, Elections, Voting Behavior

Abstract

What is the impact of patriotism on citizens in democracies? Most Americans are patriotic, but important differences exist among politically relevant subgroupings. Despite many political theorists judging patriotism negatively, we do not know much about its effect on democratic citizenship. I investigate the relationship between patriotism and a particularly important aspect of democratic citizenship—collective action—using two methodologies. First, it examines survey data showing the clear relationship between patriotism and greater civic engagement. Civic engagement is almost always concerned with improving society and is the classic example of a collective action problem. Additionally, this research uses experimental evidence to show that a random half of the survey respondents were primed with a patriotic message or more likely to be willing to go to a page to sign up to donate blood to the American Red Cross. Both methodologies come to the same conclusion: patriotism increases the likelihood of engaging in collection action. This is further evidence of the theory that patriotism encourages citizens to pay a cost to help society.

Author

• Sean Richey, Georgia State University