Civic engagement in times of economic crisis: a cross-national comparative study of voluntary association membership

Abstract

Do economic crises mobilize or depress civic engagement? This paper examines this question by analysing cross-national trends in voluntary association membership in the context of the global financial crisis. A mobilization hypothesis suggests that an economic crisis would increase membership in voluntary associations, as these associations provide citizens a channel for interest articulation and aggregation facilitating their response to the crisis. A retreat hypothesis, on the other hand, suggests that an economic crisis would depress voluntary association membership, as people have fewer resources to be involved in these associations at a time of crisis. To test these hypotheses, this paper examines data on voluntary association memberships from the World Values Survey in 14 democratic countries, fielded before and after the global financial crisis hit in 2008. The results support the retreat hypothesis. Following the crisis, there was a decline in voluntary association memberships overall and countries harder hit by the crisis were more likely to experience declines. There was no evidence of mobilization among those more vulnerable to the crisis. Rather, the profile of those engaged in voluntary associations was similar before and after the crisis, skewed towards those better off in society, including those with higher education levels, higher incomes, and in paid employment.

El efecto austeridad. El activismo de partido en Europa durante la Gran Recesión

“…This is quite puzzling because the last Great Recession prompted a surge on protest activities in several European countries and, eventually, quite striking changes on several party systems where new parties emerged while others declined or eventually died out (Bermeo and Bartels 2014;Quaranta 2015;Morlino and Raniolo 2017;Kriesi et al 2020). Trying to answer a similar question on the effects of an economic crisis on participation in voluntary associations, Cameron suggested two competing hypotheses supported with previous partial empirical evidence (Cameron 2021). The retreat hypothesis suggested, in line with the civic voluntarism model, that the economic crisis would demobilise citizen participation.…”

“…On the other hand, we also aim to observe whether such evolution, particularly in terms of party activism, has been affected by contextual factors such as the Great Recession. Recent research suggests an important demobilisation effect on voluntary associationism (Cameron 2021) but to the best of our knowledge this has barely been discussed in relation to party activism. Using data from the European Social Survey rounds 1 to 9 (2002-2018), this article explores the effect of some political, social and economic variables aiming to test the consequences for party activism of the austerity policies implemented in some European countries.…”

“…In that sense, our results indicate the Great Recession acted as a mobilisation agent in those countries that were more severely affected. Contrarily to Cameron (2021) findings on joining voluntary associations, when it comes to party activism and not simply membership, the economic consequences of the Great Recession manifested in the bailout acted as a trigger to enhance individuals' chances to become more active in political parties.…”

Social Capital, Institutional Rules, and Constitutional Amendment Rates

“…The variability of group membership may be a product of economic di↵erences across democracies in the sample. Group participation is dependent on economic resources with higher rates occurring in wealthier nations (Cameron 2021).…”

Hibridación relacional del Tercer Sector de Acción Social (TSAS) en la última década. Entre la movilización y las redes vecinales-comunitarias

“…Es conocido que en tiempos de crisis económicas florecen iniciativas innovadoras y se recrean respuestas tradicionales para encarar los impactos sociales de las mismas (Kousis, 2017;Zamponi y Bosi, 2018). Esta afirmación es compatible, como algunos estudios muestran (Cameron, 2021), con el retraimiento del asociacionismo voluntario en instituciones formales en tiempos de crisis.…”