Shifting inequalities: Patterns of exclusion and inclusion in emerging forms of political participation

Participation patterns in industrialized democracies have changed considerably in the last couple of decades. While institutionalized forms of participation (e.g., party membership) are declining, we can observe a rise in the occurrence of non-institutionalized forms of political participation. In this article we pose the question of what the effect of this trend has been for patterns of political stratification during the period 1974-2002 using the Political Action Survey as well as the European Social Survey.

It can be observed that gender differences have been substantially reduced and in some cases even reversed for non-institutionalized participation and women tend to be more active in these forms than men. Younger age groups also clearly have a preference for non-institutionalized forms. Stratification based on education, however, remains the same compared to the 1970s. These findings are confirmed by a longitudinal analysis of Dutch Election Studies data for the period 1971-1998. We conclude that the emergence of new forms of political participation might have reduced age and gender based inequalities; however, it does not offer a solution for inequalities based on education.

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