Measuring Rising Forms of Political Participation

Abstract

While traditional forms of participation, such as voting and party membership are declining (Hooghe & Kern, 2017; van Biezen, Mair, & Poguntke, 2012), other forms of participation, such as unconventional and internet based forms are on the rise (Dalton & Welzel, 2014) – particularly among the younger generations (Vromen, 2014). Yet, measuring these political activities comes with its own challenges (e.g. Gibson & Cantijoch 2013; Oser et al. 2013) and items on these newer forms of political participation are comparatively rare. Therefore, this panel aims to foster exchange on the development and the use of survey questions that tap these rising forms of political participation. More specifically, we aim to discuss questions like: What are relevant forms of unconventional and internet-based participation? How do they differ from traditional forms of participation regarding measurement issues? Do we need new data and new methods to investigate these rising forms of political participation? We welcome empirical as well as theoretical and more experimental approaches.