Social Interaction and Contextual Influences On Political Participation

Though individual-level attributes typically dominate models of political participation, many studies have shown that the social context also influences individuals' likelihood of participation. This article considers two questions concerning the impact of the social context on participation. First, it examines whether specific features of individuals' discussion networks (size, politicization, and homogeneity) influence their likelihood of participation. Second, it considers whether social interaction influences only participation that is socially based, as suggested by studies of the effects of aggregate contextual characteristics on participation. The analysis uses data from the 1976 American National Election Study, which is merged with 1970 census data. Social interaction affects participation in both individually based and socially based participation, although not always in the expected direction. Aggregate contextual measures are then used to replicate previous studies that established the distinction between individually based and socially based participation. That similar results are not obtained suggests that this distinction is not valid and that the social context is likely to influence all types of participation.