Repertoires of Convention and Contention in the E.U.: Making Sense of the Participation Omnivore

• In Event: 463 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 17. Social Movement Participation and Civic Engagement

Abstract

Previous studies of who participates in democracies have largely ignored the fact that citizens employ repertoires of action in their efforts to express themselves and influence political processes and outcomes. Conventional and unconventional (or contentious) participation are treated as analytically distinct and independent rather than modeled simultaneously and interdependently. Using the latter approach, we uncover a new type of actor, the participation “omnivore,” the citizen who not only votes for and in the system but also protests against it; this group comprises nearly a third of citizens. In a multinomial logit analysis using the European Social Survey data in the midst of the Great Recession (2010), we find that participation omnivores occupy a distinct position within the political systems of the European Union relative to those who only vote or only protest. Omnivores evince high levels of political trust (more so even than those who only vote) and yet, like pure protestors, are highly dissatisfied with politics relative to only voters. While political theorists express optimism that those combining protest with institutional politics are re-inventing political activism and enlivening democracies (Norris 2002; see also Dalton 2014), our analysis suggests caution. Omnivores are much more highly educated and with higher incomes than the modal category of exclusive voters, thus raising concerns about inequalities in political expression and influence. The study of political omnivores offers significant insights into changes in participation forms, the rise and prevalence of participation inequalities, and the impact of political attitudes on activism in the early 21st century.

Authors

• Ana Belen Duran Lopez, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Kent Redding, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee