Does Workplace Experience Enhance Political Participation? A Critical Test of a Venerable Hypothesis

Abstract

Several schools of thought claim that citizens can develop their democratic skills at the workplace. Here I focus on the hypothesis put forward by Carole Pateman and by Sidney Verba and colleagues that state that by practicing civic skills and democratic decision-making at the workplace, citizens become more active in politics. I test the hypothesis with a nationally representative panel survey of the Swedish population. My findings contradict previous empirical research as no impact on political participation was discovered. I argue that the effects may have been overestimated in prior studies because the tests were based on cross-sectional data: insufficient care was taken with a number of significant methodological problems. The study points to the importance of using panel models when investigating the causes of political participation.

Youth, Precarious Employment and Political Participation in Hungary

“…In this regard, we can distinguish between the spillover model and the civic skills model (Adman, 2008). The spillover model assumes that participation in the workplace offers individuals opportunities to learn how to participate and to develop roles related to social and political participation (Pateman, 1970;Sobel, 1993).…”

“…Cohen and Vigoda (1999), for example, found that political participation can explain attitudes and behaviors in the workplace, reversing the relationship between the two variables. To solve this puzzle, Adman (2008) tested the effect of work on political participation using panel data. The effect found through a cross-sectional analyses does not hold when one takes into account the temporal ordering of events (first being involved in a specific workplace setting, then participating politically).…”

The impact of organisational attributes on political participation: results of a multi‐level survey from Switzerland

“…In reaction to the skills argument, and very closely related to the socialisation-hypothesis discussed above, Lake and Huckfeldt (1998) claimed that, in addition to any skills acquired, it is also the quality of a person's social relations that are influenced by membership in civic organisations. The quality of the networks that are offered by such 2 Ayala (2000) and Adman (2008) demonstrate that an explicit differentiation should be made between the skills obtained at the workplace and those obtained through membership in a voluntary organisation. However, one could also argue that certain professions, e.g.…”

“…2 2 Ayala (2000) and Adman (2008) demonstrate that an explicit differentiation should be made between the skills obtained at the workplace and those obtained through membership in a voluntary organisation. However, one could also argue that certain professions, e.g.…”

The Solaria Syndrome: Social Capital in a Growing Hyper-Technological Economy

“…Even when material consumption is patently unable to satisfy social needs, it can at least compensate for the deprivation of human relations: for example, agents may comfort themselves for the lack of a bowling team by playing a virtual match against a computer. Following interesting hints from political science, we also assume that on the job interaction contributes to the creation of durable ties thereby influencing the time evolution of social capital (Karasek, 1976, Greenberg, 1986, Mutz and Mondak, 2006, Adman, 2008. In such a theoretical framework, we introduce an exogenous technical progress affecting the productivity of both the private and the relational spheres of the economy.…”