Beyond Ses: A Resource Model of Political Participation

Author(s): Henry E. Brady, Sidney Verba and Kay Lehman Schlozman

Source: The American Political Science Review, Vol. 89, No. 2 (Jun., 1995), pp. 271-294
Published by: American Political Science Association
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American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2 June 1995

BEYOND SES: A RESOURCE MODEL OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

HENRY E. BRADY University of California, Berkeley
SIDNEY VERBA Harvard University
KAY LEHMAN SCHLOZMAN Boston College

T his paper develops a resource model of political participation. The resources considered
are time, money, and civic skills-those communications and organizational capacities that
are essential to political activity. These skills are not only acquired early in lije but
developed in
the nonpolitical institutional settings of adult lije: the workplace, organizations, and churches
and synagogues. These resources are distributed differentially among groups defined by
socioeconomic status. A two-stage least squares analysis shows these resources have powerful
effects on overall political activity, thus explaining why socioeconomic status has traditionally
been so powerful in predicting participation. We disaggregate overall activity into three kinds of
acts: those that involve giving time, those that entail donating money, and voting. Each requires a
different configuration of resources resulting in different patterns of stratification across various
political acts.

W hy do citizens participate in political life?

One way to think about this puzzle is to
invert the question and ask why people
show how the importance of a resource depends
upon the particular activity. Education, for example,
is important for sorne political activities because it
don't take part in politics. Three answers immedi enhances political interest and civic skills while in
ately suggest themselves: because they can't, because come is important for other activities because of the
they don't want to, or because nobody asked.1 "They monetary resources it provides.5 By showing how
can't" suggests a paucity of necessary resources: time resources differentially available on the basis of SES
to take part in political activity, money to make con affect various modes of political activity, we explain
tributions, and civic skills (i.e., the communications not only why sorne individuals are more active and
and organizational skills that facilitate effective par others less but also why certain kinds of people
ticipation). "They don't want to" focuses on the engage in particular kinds of political activity.
absence of psychological engagement with politics-a A resource-based approach also has methodologi
lack of interest in politics, minimal concern with cal and theoretical advantages, especially in compar
public issues, a sense that activity makes no differ ison to explanations based solely on psychological
ence, and no consciousness of membership in a engagement with politics, thus yielding a more pow
group with shared political interests. "Nobody erful explanation of participation. We are more con
asked" implies isolation from the recruitment fident in our ability to measure resources than in our
networks through which citizens are mobilized to ability to measure psychological engagement. Re
politics.2 ports of attitudes are notoriously fugitive, unreliable,
All three factors help explain political and difficult to compare across respondents (Duncan
participation, but we focus on the role of resources- 1984). As we shall see, the measurement of resources
time, money, and civic skills3 -for explaining rests on more factual questions for which the metrics
political participation in America. Adding used--dollars, hours, and the number of letters writ ten
resources to the other two expla nations permits us or speeches given-are unlikely to vary in mean ing
to move beyond the "SES model," that is, beyond from respondent to respondent. Although re sponses
explanations of political activity based on one or may suffer from the fallibility of human memory, at
more of the components of socioeconomic status: least these questions are about concrete, everyday
education, income, and occupation.4 By at tending matters. Furthermore, when linking en gagement and
to resources conceived at a general level, we can activity, it is hard to be certain of the direction of the
probe the way resources link backward to SES and causal arrow. Political interest and political efficacy,
other social characteristics and forward to polit ical for example, certainly facilitate po litical activity, but
activity. Going backward from resources, we can activity presumably enhances in terest and efficacy as
show that the three resources of money, time, and well. Indeed, most measures of psychological
civic skills vary in their association with SES and engagement with politics are, by their very nature,
other social characteristics. Money and sorne kinds perilously close to activity itself. This makes them
of civic skills are closely related to SES, but time robust predictors of political participa tion but trivial
and other civic skills are less stratified. Civic skills (and possibly spurious) explanations for
are less stratified by SES partly because social participation. Yet despite its apparent "head start" as
characteristics such as affiliations with a predictor of participation, we show that political
"congregational" churches are not highly correlated interest-a standard measure of psychologi-
with SES and these affilia tions serve as training
grounds for civic skills. As we go forward from
resources to political activity we can
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American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2 June 1995

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A Resource Model of Participation June 1995

cal engagement in politics-does not displace re

sources as a predictor of political participation. might offset the costs of participation without exam
Theoretical considerations lend additional support ining costs very carefully. A resource perspective
to the notion that a resource model can provide a takes seriously the costs of using resources. In doing
powerful explanation of political participation. Unlike so, we apply to politics an important variant of
psychological engagement in politics, which probably rational choice theory. Toe Chicago school of eco
develops along with political activity, the institutional nomics11 has shown how a powerful theory of choice
involvements from which citizens acquire resources can be built not upon restrictions on the motives for
generally antedate or occur independently of political choice (as the emphasis on self-interest over altruism
activity. Obviously, family background and early or duty does) but upon the budget constraints on
experiences in school-critical for both the develop resources that limit choices. If there are multiple
ment of resources for politics and for the future constraints on a series of resources that vary indepen
institutional commitments that permit the further dently in the population, then a formidable theory
enhancement of political resources---precede adult can be based upon the degree to which each resource
activity. In the absence of actual life histories col constraint is binding in a particular situation. And
lected over respondents' lifetimes, we cannot be since resources such as money, time, and skills can be
absolutely certain that adult decisions about family, measured and affected by policymakers, it is useful to
work, organizational involvements, or affiliations formulate a theory based on a careful description of
with religious institutions are apart from and in how variations in resources flowing from social strat
advance of choices to take part politically, but these ification enable and restrict individual activity.
seem plausible assumptions.6 In addition, a resource To develop a resource model of political participa
theory has implications for the normative issue of tion requires four steps. First, we define resources
how we construe political inactivity, especially when and explicate how we measure them. Second, we
the politically quiescent have obvious and pressing show how resources are distributed in the popula
needs. If individuals eschew politics because they do tion, in particular, how they relate to SES. Third, we
not care-because they prefer to devote themselves look closely at the resource of civic skills
to private rather than public pursuits---then we·are (particularly those acquired as an adult) in order to
apt to dismiss inactivity as a matter of personal show that our somewhat indirect indicators of civic
choice. If the failure to get involved is the conse skills indeed measure a single dimension of civic skill
quence of resource constraints that make it difficult that is developed in extrapolitical institutional settings
for even those who are politically interested and and available for political activity. Toe fourth step is
engaged to take part in political life, then we are the heart of our enterprise-we show that resources
likely to be more concemed about political inactivity. explain political participation and that different re
Finally, resource models of political participation tie sources are related to different activities.
into two powerful intellectual traditions: stratifica
tion theories from sociology and individual choice
perspectives from economics. The SES model follows
naturally from stratification theories,7 which suggest THE CITIZEN PARTICIPATION STUDY
that class and status hierarchies are fundamental
features of modem industrial societies that often Our data come from a large-scale, two-stage survey of
determine their politics. True to the theory, the SES the voluntary activity of the American public. The
model does an excellent job predicting political first stage consisted of over 15,000 telephone inter
partic ipation.8 Yet the SES model fails to specify views of a random sample of the American public
clearly the mechanism linking social statuses to conducted during the last six months of 1989. These
activity. Rational choice theories, on the other hand, 20-minute screener interviews provided a profile of
have clearly specified how and why individuals might political and nonpolitical activity as well as basic
decide to participate in politics to pursue their self- demographic information. In the spring of 1990,
interest, but these theories have done a very poor job much longer, in-person interviews were conducted
predicting political participation.9 Indeed, with respect with a subset of 2,517 of the original 15,000 respon
to SES and participation, at least one variant of the dents chosen so as to produce a disproportionate
rational choice approach suggests no relationship at number of both activists as well as African-
ali or, if any, that people of high SES (who by virtue Americans and Latinos. In the following analyses, we
of their high levels of education command the have reweighted the follow-up sample so that we
intellectual sophistication to comprehend the free- have a representative sample. (See Verba,
rider problem and who by virtue of their high salaries Schlozman, Brady, and Nie 1993 for a description of
would find the opportunity cost of participation the sample.) Toe study is unusual in focusing on
prohibitive) to be least likely to take part in politics. voluntary activity not only in politics but also in
Instead those with high levels of SES, who are not churches and organizations. In addition, we construed
otherwise known for particular irrationality in the political participation quite broadly, including not
conduct of only voting and other forms of electoral activity (e.g.,
their lives, are the most likely to be active. 10 working in campaigns, making financial
Toe problem is that rational choice approaches contributions) but also contacting public officials,
have focused on how the benefits of participation attending protests, and getting involved either
formally or informally on local

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American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2

issues. (Appendix A provides a list of the questions

used in this paper.) constructed an eight-point scale ranging from a
gram mar school education to a Ph.D. or
professional degree.17 In addition, one particular
aspect of educa tional experience-participation in
DEFINING AND MEASURING student govem ment in high school grovides a
POLITICAL RESOURCES potentially useful measure of civic skills. We
measure this by a four point scale ranging from no
We begin by outlining the resources for political activity to very active. Since facility in expression
participation. is central to the ability to communicate effectively,
we also use two· measures of language ability,
Time and Money testing somewhat different no tions of how verbal
facility matters. American society puts a premium
The two prime resources for investment in political on speaking and understanding English, so we
participation are time and money. Individuals use asked our respondents what language they
time in the service of political action in many ways ordinarily speak at home: English (scored as 3), a
(e.g., working in a campaign, writing a letter to a combination of English and another language (2),
public official, attending a community meeting). or another language (1). We thought that those who
Money, of course, can be donated to candidates, did not speak English at home would be less likely
parties, or innumerable political organizations or to find it easy to participate in politics. In addition,
causes. We measure money resources by family in to assess verbal ability, we used the score (number
come from ali sources in $10,000 units.12 We of items correct) on a 10-item vocabulary test that
measure the "free" time available for political has been used regularly since 1974 on the National
activity by the
Opinion
hours, if any, left over after accounting for time spent Research Center's General Social Survey. 19 For the
in an average day doing work for pay, doing neces 1% of our sample interviewed in Spanish, this test
sary household work of ali sorts, studying or going was administered using Spanish words. 20 Alwin
to school, and sleeping.13 Time and money differ
in notes that this vocabulary score is strongly related
significant ways as resources. In comparison with to schooling (a correlation of .51 in our sample and
money, time is both more constrained and more .54 in Alwin's), but such seores also "correlate
equally distributed-everyone has only 24 hours in a highly with tests of general intelligence-usually .8
day. The upper limit on money, of course, is much or high er-and are good indicators of seores on the
less constrained, and differences among individuals verbal component of standard tests of general
can be much larger. Time is constrained in another intelligence"
way that affects the way it is distributed. Time not (1991, 627).21Years of education and vocabulary score
used today cannot be put in the bank. Money, in are included in our model. to show that both school
contrast, can be accumulated for later use. 14 ing and general intelligence matter for political par
ticipation and to provide additional support for our
contention that civic skills matter when other factors
Civic Skills are controlled.
Civic skills-those communications and organiza To measure civic skills developed as an adult, we
tional capad.ti.es that are so essential to political asked those with jobs and those who reported activ
activi -constitute a third resource for participa ity in a church or an organization 22 whether as part
tion.1 Citizens who can speak or write well or who of their involvement in each sphere, they had, in
are comfortable organizing and taking part in meet the past six months, engaged in the following
ings are likely to be more effective when they get activities: written a letter, gone to a meeting where
involved in politics. The acquisition of civic skills decisions were made, planned or chaired a meeting,
begins early in life-at home and, especially, in or given a presentation or speech. In each realm (on
school. However, the process need not cease with the job, at church, or in nonpolitical voluntary
the end of schooling but can continue throughout organizations) we measured civic skills as the
adult hood. Adult civic skills relevant for politics number, ranging from zero to four, of these skill-
can be acquired and honed in the nonpolitical acts undertaken by the respondent in the last six
institutions of adult life-the workplace, voluntary months. Those who have an opportunity to do these
associations, and churches. Managing a reception things in a nonpolitical setting would, presumably,
for new employ ees and addressing them about be more willing and able to do them in a political
company benefits policy, coordinating the context. In this sense, we expect that these
volunteers for the Heart Fund drive, or arranging competencies can be used as inde pendent variables
the details for a tour by the church children's choir- to explain political participation. Table 1 presents,
all these undertakings rep resent opportunities in both for ali respondents and for only those involved
nonpolitical settings to learn, maintain, or improve in each arena, the frequency with which individuals
civic skills. engage in activities that we expect to produce civic
We measured civic skills in several ways. Since skills. People are most likely to engage in skill-acts
communications and organiza:tional skills are ac at work: 53% of the sample practiced at least one
quired in school, we asked an extensive set of ques skill on the job in the six months before the survey.
tions about educational attainment.16 From these Yet 33% of the population engaged in skill-acts in
we nonpolitical organizations and 20% in churches or
synagogues.

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 A Resource Model of Participation June 1995

Percent Reporting Various Activities in Nonpolitical Settings

IN NONPOLmCAL INCHURCHOR
ONTHEJOB ORGANIZATIONS SYNAGOGUE
%0F
%0F %0F ORGANIZA- %0F %0F
WHOLE %0F WHOLE TIONALLY WHOLE CHURCH
CIVILSKILL SAMPLE WORKINGª SAMPLE INVOLVEIY' SAMPLE MEMBERSC
Attend a meeting
where decisions are 48 70 30 41 18 27
Plan such a meeting 24 36 14 19 9 13
Write a letter 40 58 15 16 6 9
Make a speech or presentation 28 40 15 18 10 15
At least one of the above 53 78 33 44 20 29

to vacation, illness, etc. "Member of or contributor to an organization that does not take stands on public issues. "Member of or regular attender of services at a local church or synagogue.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF Figure 1 shows the very different relationship

POLITICAL RESOURCES be tween money and SES (as measured by
educational attainment) and time and SES. As
As we shall demonstrate, the presence or absence expected, educa tion and family income are
of resources contributes substantially to individual strongly related. There is no such consistent pattem
dif ferences in participation. Resources are, in turn, of stratification when it comes to time. Those in
not equally distributed; sorne socioeconomic the least well educated group-,-a disproportionate
groups are better endowed than others. This makes number (51%) of whom are retired, keeping house,
a resource model useful not only for explaining or permanently dis abled-have on average more
individual dif ferences in political activity but for free time. Beyond this, however, greater
explaining differ ences in activity among educational advantage is associated with neither
politically significant social groups, especially more nor less free time. If we were to consider
differences along SES lines. How ever, resources another aspect of SES-position on the occupational
vary in the extent to which they are stratified by hierarchy-the contrast between money and time
SES, that is, in the extent to which they are would appear even more clearly. If working
differentially available to those high on the SES respondents are stratified into job levels based on
scale. how much formal education and on-the-job
training their jobs require, we find, not
Money and Time
surprisingly, that family income rises sharply with
each step on the occupational ladder. However, this
If you want to give money, you must have money; pattem is not repeated for free time: those in the
if you want to contribute time, you must have sorne least skilled jobs have almost exactly the same
free time. Income, of course, is one of the compo number of hours free time per day as do those in
nents of socioeconomic status. By definition, it is the highest level jobs.
concentrated in the hands of the wealthy; we also What then affects the availability of free time?
know that those with more education and higher The answer is simple. The factors that affect free
status jobs command a disproportionate share of time are "life circumstances": having a job,
the wealth. We know less about the distribution of especially a full time one; having a spouse with a
free time in relation to SES. 0n one hand, the rich job; and having children at home, especially
might have more free time because they can hire preschool children-all diminish the amount of free
others to do what most people have to do for time available. Those working full-time report, on
themselves. 0n the other, the rich might have less average, six fewer hours free per day; a working
free time because they accumulate their wealth by spouse reduces free time by about three hours;
logging long hours at work. These conjectures preschoolers at home reduce free time by about
reflect the contradictory pre dictions of economic three hours.23 This finding-that in contrast to
theory, which holds both that an income effect money, which is of a piece with SES, the amount
would produce more leisure for the rich because of free time available varies with life circum
they are able to purchase it and that a substitution stances rather than with socioeconomic advantage
effect would produce less because their higher has implications for American politics. To the
wages raise the opportunity cost of free time extent that citizen politics in America relies
(Mincer 1962). In fact, neither conjecture is increasingly on modes of activity that use money
correct: free time and SES are unrelated. rather than time as a resource, the edge enjoyed by
the already advantaged is enhanced.

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American Political Science Vol. 89, No. 2
Review

Educational Stratification of Income and Free Time

lncome In $1,'000's
Free Time In Hours Per Day
$70.--------------------------------,10

$60
'' 8
' '
$50 ''
''
' .....
$40 - --------,:--------- 6

$30 Average Hours Per Day Free

4

$20 Average Vearly lncome ($1,000's)

2
$10

$0'-------...1.------ -------'--------'0
No H.S. DiplomaH.S. DiplomaSome CollegeCollege Graduate Some Graduate
Level of Education

Civic Skills vides the chance to practice sorne skills. The

Civic skills are, in ,general, more likely to be pos stratifica tion by education for job-based civic skills
sessed by the socioeconomically advantaged. Those comes primarily from differences in chances to
with higher levels of education are more likely to practice skills and not from differences in
speak English at home, to have better vocabulary attachments to the labor force. Those with higher
skills, and to have taken part in high school govern education are only slightly more likely to be
ment. Civic skills acquired as an adult at work, in working than the less well educated, but among
organizations, and in church are also stratified by those with jobs, the better-educated are much more
education. The stratification of civic skills by educa likely to have chances to practice skills. The
tion, however, varies greatly across jobs, organiza stratification of skill opportunities in voluntary
tions, and religious institutions. Figure 2 shows the associations is somewhat different. The advantage
mean number of skills exercised in each of the three of the educated in this respect comes from the fact
institutional settings for those at various levels of that those with high levels of educational
education. (The pattern would be the same if the attainment are considerably more likely than those
measure of SES were income or occupational level.) at lower levels to be involved with an organization.
All respondents are included in the computation of Among the involved, however, there is less
average skills whether they are involved in a partic difference among educational groups in the
ular setting or not (i.e., whether they have jobs, are practice of civic skills. Finally, churches are most
affiliated with an organization, or belong to a church egalitarian in the civic skill opportunities they
or not). Those who never finished high school re afford, and they are egalitarian in two ways: (1)
ceive few skill opportunities anywhere. Those with there is no consistent relationship between
at least a high school diploma have more opportuni education and church membership: those with the
ties to practice civic skills on the job than in organi least education are as likely as those with the most
zations or m church, presumably reflecting the fact to attend church regularly; and (2) among those
that most people spend more time working than en
who attend church, there is relatively little
gaging in organizational or church activities. Toe stratifica tion by education in terms of who makes
net result is that in providing opportunities to
exercise skills, workplaces discriminate most-and a speech or organizes a meeting.
churches least-on the basis of educational Toe differences across the three institutions are
attainment. significant for the stratification of participation in
The process by which these results are achieved American politics. The workplace reinforces initial
varies across these institutions. The opportunity to socioeconomic advantage as the well-educated com
practice civic skills in an institution requires both pound their advantage by developing skills on the
involvement in the institution and a setting that job. Since the educated join more organizations,
pro- voluntary associations also reinforce earlier advan
tage. However, organizations offer those affiliated

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A Resource Model of Participation June 1995

Average Civic Skills Acquired on Job, in a Non-Political Organization, and in Church

Average Number of Skills

4,--------,.---------------------
+ Church Skllls • Organlzatlon Skllls :Á: Job Skllls
3,5

3
- ··
2.5
. .J;.:.
2

....1.5

------·----------•----------r-
O'----------------------------'

No H.S. DiplomaH.S. DiplomaSome CollegeCollege GraduateSome Graduate

Level of Education

Among all respondents at each educational level

with them chances to practice skills with relatively

little regard for educational attainment. Finally, be church-provides opportunities to acquire the re
cause church attendance is not stratified by SES and sources relevant to political activity. Civic skills
because, within the church or synagogue, education are a central-and, we believe, innovative-
plays a smaller role in who is active, religious insti component of our model. They are also somewhat
tutions are the most egalitarian in terms of civic problematic. We begin our analysis.of the resource
training. Compare, for example, the skill-developing model with a closer look at civic skills.
opportunities in workplace versus church for a
Catholic with a professional or managerial job (53%
of whóm graduated from college) anda Baptist with a DEVELOPING CIVIC SKILLS:
clerical or blue-collar job (only 3% of whom A LEARNING MODEL
graduated from college). The Catholic professional or
manager prac tices an average of 2.89 skills on the job Our measures of civic skills-educational
but only .22 skills in church. Compared to the attainment, participation in high school
Catholic profes sional or manager, the Baptist clerical govemment, language ability, and reports on
or blue-collar worker averages fewer skill acts (only activities in adult institu tions-are a disparate and
1.11) on the job but much more at church (.84). somewhat indirect set. Therefore, we need to
To summarize, we have considered several kinds demonstrate that these are all indeed measures of
of resources. These resources are distributed differ civic skills and that these skills are developed or
entially across socioeconomic groups. lf these re perfected in the institutions we describe. If these
sources, acquired outside of politics, affect political conditions hold, we will have a powerful set of
activity, we will have a potent explanation of the variables that can be used to explain political
origin of disparities in participation across social activity. The task is somewhat easier for civic
groups. If the various resources are differentially skills learned in the home and in school. It seems
useful for altemative political activities, our model reasonable to suppose that education, language
will also explain why sorne forms of involvement are abil ities, and participation in high school
more stratified than others. govemment constitute real measures of skills that
Figure 3 displays the resource model can facilitate political participation. And we know
schematically. We shall not discuss it fully here but that they are temporally prior to adult engagement
refer to itas we move through our argument. At this in politics. However, we wish to demonstrate that
point, let us simply indicate that Figure 3 civic skills are also developed in adulthood and
summarizes the way in which involvement with that these skills then foster political participation.
institutions-first in school and later on the job, There are three obstacles to making this case for
in organizations, and in civic skills in general and for adult civic skills in
particular. First, there is a measurement problem.
We

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 American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2

The Resource Model

Resources: Skllls Time

Political
Money
lnstltutional lnvolvements and Educatlon
lnstltutlonal Sklll Opportunlties lnterest andPolitlcal Self·descrlbedActs
Skill Acts
Types Skills

Job Opportunities
Job SkillActs

Occupation
Political Acts
Organizational Opportunities
Active in Organizations Organizational Skill Acts Voting,
Contacting,
Campaign Work,
ampaign Money,
C Informal
Attendance at Church
Community,
Boards,
Protest

Church Opportunities Church Skill Acts

Catholicor Non-Catholic Church

English Spoken atHome

Vocabulary
Citizenship

Years in School

High School Government

r-= == --------- ::J

o
Political
,- - -- - - - - - - - - - -- --
- -- -- - - -- -- -- - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - • lnterest
one-way
, ' 1 ---causation
: Key: simultaneous
1
,..._,
: ObservedUnobserved - causation - 1

------------------------------------------'

measure civic skills acquired before adulthood indi

rectly by asking about educational experiences and there might be a spurious correlation problem. A
language abilities. It is not certain that those with third variable (e.g., a general taste for activity) may lead
high levels of educational attainment, experience in individuals both to practice skills in nonpolitical in
high school government, high vocabulary seores, or stitutions and to have civic skills. There may be no
the ability to speak English have the capacity to causal relationship between skill-acts and civic skills,
communicate in political settings or to organize po and we should not draw causal arrows between skill-
litical activities. A similar but more severe problem acts and civic skills as we do on Figure 3. Finally, there
applies to civic skills developed in adulthood. lt is the locus of development problem, the issue of
seems likely that respondents who report engaging where skills are developed. Even if the correlation
in an activity such as writing a letter or organizing a between skill acts and civic skills is not the result of
meeting have the skill to do so. However, the con sorne third variable, the relationship may be due to
verse is not necessarily true; all those with the skill to the fact that civic skills lead to the performance of skill-
write letters do not necessarily do so at work. Our acts, not vice versa. Individuals may perform skill-acts
measure of adult civic skills, then, really measures in a particular institutional setting because they brought
engaging in activities that require skills, what we skills with them, perhaps innate skills or skills
shall call skill-acts. Our claim that skill acts measure learned elsewhere. If this is the case, civic skills will
civic skills amounts to arguing there must be at least not be developed in nonpolitical institu tions through
sorne correlation between civic skills and the three skill-acts. The exercise of skill-acts in a particular
skill-acts variables at the center of Figure 3. institutional setting will not imply that civic skills are
Second, correlation is not enough. Even if sorne obtained or enhanced in that setting.
measure of civic skills is correlated with skill-acts, In short, to establish the proposed links between
civic skills and political participation we must dem-

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A Resource Model of Participation June 1995

onstrate that our measures indeed measure real skills;

that there is no unspecified additional factor (e.g., a column. For example, such preexisting civic skills as
the ability to write a letter combine with opportuni
taste for involvement) responsible for both the per ties on the job to write letters to produce job skill-acts
formance of skill acts and political activity; and that captured by our questions. In turn, these skill-acts (as
these skills were developed or enhanced in the non shown by the arrow going from skill-acts to civic
political institutions where they are exercised. skills) develop and enhance civic skills.
One response to the measurement problem is that As indicated by the rounded boxes on Figure 3, we
our measures have a good deal of face validity. This do not have direct measures for several of the key
is certainly the case for education and language variables, skill opportunities, and civic skills. There
ability. It alsó applies to the exercise of skills in adult fore, we must find proxies for them. Whether an
insti tutions. Because those who perform a skill-act individual gets the opportunity to practice a civic skill
are presumably learning a new skill or maintaining at work, in an organization, or at church depends
and improving a preexisting one by practicing it, the upon severa! things. Obviously, it depends upon the
measure of skill-acts is very likely to be an indicator institutional involvements listed in the second column
of the existence of civic skills.24 Moreover, because in Figure 3-having a job or being affiliated with a
we ask about skill-acts in three major secondary voluntary association or religious institution. We
institu tions, we capture the main opportunities measure workplace involvement by a three-point
people have to practice such skills. Despite these scale of employment status (not working scored as O,
arguments in their favor, the questions about skill- part-time as 1, and full-time as 2); attachment to
acts have what might seem at first to be a organizations by a three-point scale (ranging from no
disconcerting feature. Responses to them are not all involvement, scored as 1, to attending meetings,
highly correlated across the three domains of job, scored as 3); and involvement in religious institutions
organization, and church. 25 How can these questions by a nine-point measure of frequency of religious
measure a coherent one dimensional concept like attendance and a six-point measure of the number of
civic skills if a person who reports performing skill- hours devoted to church activities. Beyond institu
acts in one domain is not very likely to do so in tional involvements, the opportunity to practice skills
another? Answering this question requires sorne also dependson the type of institution listed in the
careful modeling of how opportunities to exercise first column in Figure 3. Occupations, voluntary
skills interact with the skills individuals already organi zations, and churches differ substantially in the
possess to produce the kinds of skill-acts our ex tent to which they afford opportunities to exercise
respondents report. skills germane to politics. Someone who works in a
With sorne extensions, a model can also provide consulting firm rather than a dry-cleaning shop, who
the basis for meeting the other two problems we have is involved in a fraternal organization rather than
delineated. We must show that the performance of softball league, or who is active in a congregationally
skill-acts in each domain represents an exercise of organized, rather than a hierarchically organized,
civic skills (not merely the reflection of sorne third church is more likely to have an opportunity to
vari able) and that those who perform skill-acts develop civic skills. For jobs we describe the e of
thereby develop civic skills as well. In other words, institution by a nine-point occupation scale in
people use preexisting civic skills (education-based which higher values indicate higher-status jobs,
organiza tional and communications skills as well as which presumably provide more opportunities for
innate skills) to perform skill-acts. In turn, when they skill-acts, and for religious institutions we use a
per form skill-acts in one institution they increase dummy variable for belonging to a Catholic church,
their skills so that they can engage in still more skill- which provides fewer opportunities for skill-acts,
acts in that or sorne other domain. Establishing this presumably because of its hierarchical structure.
kind of reciproca! causation is usually very difficult Obviously, it would have been preferable to have
in cross sectional studies without making sorne direct measures of civic skills, but we could hardly
arbitrary "ex clusion" restrictions on which variables follow our respondents around to observe their skill
affect other ones but we have leverage on this in making public statements or organizing meetings.
problem because we have asked people about their As substitute asures, we use our respondents'
activities in three different domains that cover most of subjective reports of their civic skills. Self-described
the major op portunities adults have to gain skills. skills (the box in the upper right-hand comer of Figure
Within each domain, it is obvious that the type of 3) are measured by questions as to whether respon
institution and the level of involvement in it should dents believe they could write a convincing letter on
affect skill-acts in that domain but not in the other a public matter, could talk well at a meeting, and
domains. This provides sorne obvious exclusion would be taken seriously if they made a public
restrictions. statement. These three items are correlated about .32
Figure 3 displays what we believe to be the recip with each other and form a reasonable eight-point
rocal causation between civic skills and skill-acts in scale. There are, however, potential problems with
the three domains of work, organizations, and this measure. For one thing, it raises the same ques
church. We propose that an individual's preexisting tions we discussed earlier with respect to measures of
civic; skills represented by the shaded rounded box political efficacy (which, in fact, it resembles); that is,
at the upper right of Figure 3 combine with high self-assessmentsof civic skills could be the result
opportunities to practice skills in each domain
listed in the third column to produce the skill-acts
listed in the fourth

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American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2

as well as the cause of political activity. This limits protesting during the last two years (5%)
the usefulness of the measure for explaining
political participation but does not affect its board membership or regular meeting attender dur-
usefulness for understanding the relationship ing last two years (5%)
among civic skills, skill-acts, and opportunities to These participatory acts vary along many dimen
exercise skills.27 A second potential defect is of sions. Sorne require the investment of time, sorne
greater concem: people's self-assessments are money. Sorne require skill, others do not. Sorne are
unlik.ely to be fully accurate as measures of their ongoing, others episodic. And sorne are considered
real talents. At worst, however, the measurement mainstream, others less so. Our survey has questions
error inherent in respondents' subjec tive reports of about severa! other activities such as voting in local
their civic skills would probably de press our elections, participating in political organizations, and
estimates of the relationships between civic skills phoning in to radio ta1k shows, but the activities
and skill-acts. Therefore, in this context, self listed above cover tlie major dimensions of political
described skills are a reasonable measure of civic activity. Our survey also includes detailed informa
skills. tion on the time and money devoted to political acts.
Estimates of the learning model for civic skills are Later we will use this additional information, but for
in Appendix B. We show that there is a single the moment, we score each of these seven activities
dimension of "civic skills" underlying the various as 1 for people who engage in it and O otherwise.
measures of civic skills-the three measures of adult Then a simple sum28 of the number of acts yields an
skill-acts, the two educational experiences, and lan average of 1.63 activities in the sample (with a stan
guage ability. Moreover, people develop civic skills dard deviation of 1.35). This suggests that the aver
through their involvement in the institutions of adult age person votes and performs part of another act. In
life. Engaging in skill-acts (planning meetings, mak fact, the frequency distribution of acts is skewed with
ing speeches, etc.) develops civic skills that are po 21% performing no acts, 33% one, 21% two, 14%
tentially transferable to politics. We also show that three, 7% four, 3% five, and 1% or less six or seven
the nature of the institution itself affects the number acts2.9 Thus, three-quarters of the population per
of skills exercised there-even after a number of forms between zero and two acts, and the remaining
individual characteristics that might affect the perfor quarter is concentrated at three or four acts.
mance of skill-acts have been taken into account. This
supports the notion that we are observing a real
process of skill development within institutions, not Estimating the Model
merely the consequences of the attributes that people
bring with them. The analysis in Appendix B dem We presented the complete resource model in
onstrates in a concrete way how churches, jobs, and Figure 3, in which such resources as free time,
organizations can serve as potential training grounds family in come, and civic skills, along with
for political activity and how nonpolitical choices citizenship status and political interest, explain the
about jobs, organizations, and church attendance level of political participation. We do not observe
may affect political life. To demonstrate that they do, civic skills directly but have shown that they can be
in fact, have such an effect is our next, and most represented by skill-acts, language abilities, and
fundamental, task. formal educational experiences. This suggests that
we can use ordinary least squares (OLS) to regress
political acts on free time, family income, skill-
acts, language abilities, and formal educational
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION experiences. Proceeding in this way, however,
AND RESOURCES depends upon our faith in the exoge neity and
reliability of the resource measures and our
We have shown that accidents of birth combine willingness to make assumptions about what affects
with choices about jobs, family, and organizational political participation. We have argued that one of
and religious involvement to determine the the advantages of a resource explanation for
resources of time, money, and skills that political participation is that resources result from
individuals bring to politics. We now inquire about decisions about life circumstances, jobs, joining
the links between these resources and· political organizations, and attending church that are
activity. We construe political participation quite temporally prior to political participation. This
broadly and include the following in the scale: seems obviously true for family income and free
voting in the 1988 presidential election (70% of the time, and it seems very likely true for adult civic
population) skills developed at work, in church, and in
nonpolitical organizations. H so, re sources can be
contacting at federal or local level in last year (34%) considered exogenous and OLS can be used to
giving campaign money between January 1988 and estimate the resource model.
the interview in Spring 1990 (24%)
This leaves us with one possible problem. H
working informally with others on community prob sorne omitted variable (e.g., a taste for
lems in the last year (17%) participation) is correlated with both the
campaign work between January 1988 and the inter accumulation of resources (most likely civic skills
view in Spring 1990 (9%) as measured by skill-acts) and political
participation, then ordinary least squares will yield
biased estimates. There are good reasons to

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 A Resource Model of Participation June 1995

believe that this might not be much of a problem in

our model. First, the inclusion of participation in
high school govemance probably helps control for
Determinants of Overall Political Participation: Ordinary Least Squares Estimati
pre existing tastes for political activity. Second, we OVERALL POLITICAL
do not believe that the process that leads to PARTICIPATION MEASURE
involvement in a church, for example, has much to MODELW/0MODELWITH INTERESTINTEREST
do with ataste for political participation. Yet we do
believe that psycho logical engagement with
politics matters for political participation, so that it
seems sensible to add an additional control for INDEPENDENT COEFF. (SE) BETA COEFF. (SE) BETA
tastes in the participation equa tion by including VARIABLE WT. .261** WT.
the sum of interest in local and national political Political lnterest .015 .304
affairs.30 This has the virtue of allowing us to
compare the relative importance of resources and Adult skill-acts
psychological engagement. It has the defect, Job .087** (.022) .101 .057** .066
however, that it may introduce another prob lem. .137** (.029) .021
As we have discussed, political interest may be as Organizational .118** (.033) .106 .123** .095
much an effect as a cause of political activity: it .027
may be endogenous. This may require using two- .088
.096**
.072
stage least squares (2SLS) to correct for biases Church .031
created by the endogeneity of political interest.
Time and money

Ordinary Least Squares Estimates Free time .000 .002 .004 .013
(.007) .006
Before going to 2SLS estimates, it is instructive to Family income .051** .112 .047** .104
consider the OLS estimates in Table 2, which reports (.009) .008
regression coefficients, standard errors, and beta lnstitutional involvements
weights31 for the impact of various resources in a Working-.045-.030-.008-.006
linear model.32 The only difference between the left and (.038) .036
right-hand set of columns is the inclusion of political Retirad .388** .090 .313** .073
interest in the latter equation. The results clearly (.090) .085
demonstrate the importance of resources. Ex cept for
Organizational .070 .043 .031 .019
speaking English at home, the measures of civic skills (.036) .034
acquired early in life (education, participa tion in high
school govemment,33 and vocabulary ability) are Attendance at .010 .021 .001 .002
positively related to political activity. When citizenship church (.011) .010
is left out of the equation, speaking English at home Time in church .049 .043 .053 .047
appears to have an impact, but our analyses suggest that work (.028) .027*
this is merely because it spuri ously picks up the impact lnstitutional types
of citizenship with which it is correlated at .48. Occupation .020 .040 .021* .042
Citizenship must be included in the equation because it (.011) .010
is a prerequisite for voting and might affect other Catholic church .061 .020 .086 .028
kinds of participation as well. Civic skills acquired as (.055) .052
an adult in nonpolitical insti tutions are also significant, Formal education
making clear the role of the social institutions of civil education Years of school (.021)
High .145** .164 .120**
.020 .136
society in creating a competent and active citizenry. governance .178** (.025) .130 .118** .086
Family income also matters a great deal. The only Language ability .024
resource measure that does not have a significant effect Speaking English at home
is free time. As we shall see, when we purge free time .045.011 .056 .014
of error, it too emerges as a significant factor in (.077) .073
explaining political
activity. Vocabulary score .062** .099 .032* .051
Now consider the right-hand columns reporting (.013) .012
the equation that includes political interest. Note that Citizenship .889** .109 .790** .097
with the exception of retirement, neither the degree (.158) .150
of institutional involvement nor the type of institu Constant -1.380** - 2.281**
tion is more than modestly important in determining (.193) .190
participation. Time spent in educational, charitable, R2 .301 .377
or social activities associated with a church has a Sample size 2,438 2,429
small impact that is barely statisticallySource:
significant
Data frombut
Citizen Participation Survey.
none of the rest of the institutional involvements has
Note: CoEFF. refers to the regression coefficient and SE to its standard error. BETA wr. refers to the standardized regressio
a statistically significant impact on political
'ps .05. participa
tion. Simply being involved with nonpolitical
"ps .01. institu-

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American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2

tions does not foster political activity. What counts

is what happens there-in particular, whether there OLS results converge on a common interpretation in
are opportunities to learn, improve, or maintain which resources and psychological engagements
skills. This result elaborates in an important way drive political participation.
our under standing of the role of nonpolitical
institutions in stimulating political activity. Two-Stage Least Squares Estimates
That political interest is related to political activity
is, in itself, not very illuminating. As we have pointed Whereas the OLS model incorporates the possibility
out, political interest is likely to be a consequence as of direct effects from institutional involvements and
well as a cause of political activity. Even if we types to political participation, our first 2SLS model
consider it only as a cause of activity, however, it is assumes that these paths are zero. We assume this
hardly astonishing that those who are interested in because our resource model suggests that these paths
politics are also active.34 What is important is that its should be zero. This provides a substantial set of
inclusion does not supplant the effects of civic skills variables that were in the OLS equations but are
and family income. The relationship between re excluded from the 2SLS model and used as instru
sources and activity remains even with this powerful mental variables: working, retired, occupation, organiza
predictor of political activity in the equation. tional involvement, attendance at church, time devoted to
church work, and Catholic. In addition, we include
in the equation (and treat as exogenous) family
Problems of Endogeneity income, participation in high school governance,
There is still room for worry, however. If political speaking English at home, formal educational
interest is endogenous, then the OLS estimates may experience, vocabulary score, and citizenship status.
be biased. Even if political interest is not This means that the three skill acts measures and free
endogenous, OLS estimates may still be biased if time are treated as endoge nous. Finally, we also use
sorne unmea sured variable not captured by a set of individual charac teristics that are clearly
political interest af fects both the accumulation of exogenous as instruments: race (African-American
resources and political participation.35 One and all others), ethnicity (Lat ino and all others),
approach to this problem (Achen 1986) is to find parents' education average on a nine-point scale,
exogenous variables that explain skill-acts but are gender, number of children at home, whether any
not also proxies for the tastes that directly cause children are of preschool age, and whether the
political participation. These can then be used as spouse works full-time, part-time, or not at all.37 For
instrumental variables to purge the mea sures of the equation with political interest in it, we use one
civic skills of this taste factor. additional instrument: the respondent' s po litical
Two-stage least squares is the most efficient interest as reported on a screener interview
method for combining the instrumental variables that completed 6 to 12 months before the final interview.38
we need for civic skills and political interest. lt is also Table 3 presents data from a 2SLS analysis in which
useful for correcting for error in free time and in institutional involvements and types (as well as the
come.36 lt requires the availability of good instru set of demographic attributes and life circumstances
ments-exogenous variables that are highly corre lated listed) are used as instruments but excluded from the
with the included endogenous variables. lt also equation. This approach should avoid the problem of
requires that enough instruments be excluded from possible bias in the OLS estimates. The result for the
each equation to produce identification. Because we resource model are very similar to what we found in
have a theory in which institutional involvements Table 3 except that free time, now that it is purged of
and institutional types have no direct impact on error, is also significant. Somewhat surprisingly, po
citizen participation (see Appendix B), we can use litical interest and adult civic skills matter even more
these variables as instruments in the participation in the 2SLS equation than in the OLS version. We
equation. After all, our theory says that institutional believe this is because political interest and adult civic
involvements and types should be omitted from the skills are measured with error and 2SLS corrects not
participation equation. One might, however, wonder only for endogeneity but also for unreliability.39 In
whether institutional involvements might also proxy this case, it appears that unreliability has depressed
a taste for participation. This suggests that it would the OLS estimates.
be interesting to include these measures in the equa The similarity of the coefficients for the three
tion to see if they have an impact beyond resources. kinds of adult civic skills is especially striking. If
Unfortunately, this may leave us with a meager and the skill-act measures really measure skills and if
weak set of instruments. the resources model is correct, then we would
Our solution is to proceed in two complementary expect that skills exercised at work, in nonpolitical
ways. We use 2SLS to estimate a model in which organizations, and in church would be transferable
institutional involvements are excluded and used as to politics at about the same rate. If either of these
instruments. Then we use 2SLS to estimate a model hypotheses fail, it would seem unlikely that the
that excludes institutional type and religious atten coefficients would be equal to one another. A test
dance to ensure identification but that includes mea for equality of the coefficients strongly supports
sures of institutional involvement for jobs, organiza the conclusion that the three coefficients can be
tions, and church. These two approaches and the treated as equal to one another. 40 We impose this
restriction on the skill-acts in the third column,
and this shows that simply

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 A Resource Model of Participation June 1995

Although we do not report the details here, we

have also estimated this model with institutional
Determinants of Overall Political Participation: involvements (working, retired, organizational in
Two-Stage Least Squares Estimation volvement, attendance at church, and time in church
activity) included as independent exogenous vari
OVERALL POLITICAL ables meant to represent tastes for participation. The
PARTICIPATION MEASURE sum of skill-acts is still highly significant, with a
WITHADULT WITHSUM t-statistic of 3.46 anda beta weight of .394. Moreover,
CIVIC SKILLS OF ADULT the coefficients for the institutional involvements in
SEPARATE CIVIC SKILLS the equation are, with the exception of the effects of
INDEPENDENT COEFF. BETA COEFF. BETA being retired and working, insignificant or of the
VARIABLES (SE) WT. (SE) WT. wrong sign.41 This suggests, once again, that it is
Political interest .420 .489 .399** .465 civic skills that matter for political participation, not
(.030) (.031) institutional involvements. In sum, our several
Adult ski/1-acts modes of estimation show political resources to be
Job .163** .189 potent for political activity.4
(.047) We can still conjure up other possible nuisances
Organizational .091** .070 that could explain our results, but we believe that
(.040) we have tried systematically to eliminate as many
Church .177** .131 alter native explanations as possible with the data
(.036) and techniques at hand. We show, for example, that
Sum of adult .154** .303 skill-acts measure civic skills, that skills are devel
civic skills (.021) oped in adult institutions, that civic skills predict
Time and money participation even with controls for political
Free time .044** .150 .042** .142 interest and other confounding variables, and that a
(.012) (.008) theoret ically generated set of instrumental
Family income .037** .082 .032** .072 variables produce the same result. In addition, we
(.009) (.008) have tried systemat ically, with zeal and
thoroughness, to make our results evaporate by
Formaleducaüonal
experiences estimating many other models. For example, we
Years of .089** .101 .079** .090 have included age, length of resi dence, intensity of
education (.023) (.020) party identification, and many other variables in
High school .070** .051
other specifications not reported here, and tried
.073** .053
govemance (.026) (.025) many nonlinear specifications. The results we
report are typical of what we get; and in no case
Language ability have we been able to eliminate--or even reduce
Speaking English .034 .009 .039 .010
at home (.076) (.074)
much-the strong and significant results of civic
skills and money.43
Vocabulary seora .01o .016 .011 .017
(.013) (.013)
U.S. citizenship .699** .085 .686** .084
(.156) (.153) POLITICAL RESOURCES ANO
Constant -2.862** -2.721** SPECIFIC POLITICAL ACTS
(.202) (.200)
R2 .337 .345 The resource model works very well for an overall
Sample size 2,427 2,430 measure of political participation. However, a sum
mary activity measure presumably masks significant
Source: Data from Citizen Participation Survey. differences among political acts, differences that
Note: CoEPF. refers to the regression coefficient and SE to its standard
error. BETA wr. refers to the standardized regression coefficient. Instru·
might be related to resources. We distinguish three
mental variables for 2SLS estimation are working at job, retired or not, kinds of activity: acts requiring an investment of
occupational type, degree of organizational involvement, attendance at money (through contributions to campaigns and po
church, time in church activities, Catholic, years of education, involve
ment in high school governance, speaking English at home, vocabulary litical causes); acts requiring an investment of time
score, family income, black, Hispanic, education of parents, number of (by, e.g., working in a campaign or on a community
kids, preschool kids, sex, spouse work full-time, spouse work part-time,
citizen, and interest in politics from the screener. The endogenous
issue, tak.ing part in a protest, contacting ah official);
variables are therefore political interest, job skill-acts, organizational skill- and voting. We would expect these to differ in their
acts, church skill-acts (or the sum of these three), and free time. resource requirements. Making a contribution obvi
•p s .05.
.. p s .01. ously demands money but should require little in the
way of free time and may not require skills. The time-
based acts obviously demand sorne free time and
probably require, on average, a higher level of civic
taking the sum of skill-acts yields a highly significant skills. As the easiest political act, voting ought not to
coefficient with a beta weight (.303) roughly compa require much in the way of resources except, perhaps,
rable to the impact of political interest (.465). sorne free time to get to the polls. Political

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American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2

interest might be especially important for voting

because there are so few concrete payoffs to voting. requests, to any political cause. If they had, we
asked how much they gave. By adding the amounts
given to campaigns and causes, we develop a
Voting measure of the amount donated to politics. The
middle columns of Table 4 present the results of a
We begin with what is seemingly the least demand 2SLS analysis in which this variable is regressed
ing form of political activity, voting. To construct the on the variables in the resource model. The results
dependent variable, we combine two questions-one are unambiguous: the major determinant of giving
each about how often the respondent votes in local money is having money. Years of education also
and national elections-to yield a nine-point scale. To matter, but neither free time nor civic skills47 affect
simplify the presentation of the effects of the inde monetary contributions. Strik ingly, even political
pendent variables, we combine the three adult civic interest has only a modest impact (beta weight of .
skills measures into one measure by simply taking 08) on the amount donated to poli tics. In short, it
their sum for each person.44 The left-hand columns of is easy to explain the amount given: a contributor
Table 4 presents the results of a 2SLS analysis in needs money-and little else in the way of civic
which we regress the nine-point voting scale on skills or political interest-to give money.
average adult civic skills and other variables in the
resource model. We use the same instruments as
before. Political interest has by far the most substan Time
tial imract, with free time and citizenship also signif
icant.4 (The beta weights are .54, .23, and .15, The impact of resources on the forms of political
respectively.) Income has no impact and civic skills activity that require giving time (working in a cam
have less impact (a beta weight of .21) than they do paign, contacting govemment officials, protesting,
with the full participation index (where they have a engaging in informal community activity, serving
beta weight of .30). on a local governing board or attending board
A consistent finding in the literature is the meetings) is quite different from the pattem we
substan tial impact of education on voting observed for voting or monetary contributions. In
(Wolfinger and Rosenstone 1980; Teixeira 1992). the right-hand column of Table 4, we present the
Consequently, the statistically insignificant and results of an estimation of the resource model with
incorrectly signed im pact of education on tumout the dependent variable as the number of time-based
is especially surprising, but we believe that it is acts performed by the respondent. Political interest
correct. Because past work has not treated political clearly matters (beta weight of .33), as does free
interest as a possibly unreli able and endogenous time (beta of .09). Family income does not matter,
measure, we believe it has substantially but civic skills clearly have a significant impact.
underestimated the impact of interest and Adult civic skills exercised in nonpolitical
overestimated the direct impact of education. institutions48 (beta of .30) and partici pation in high
Indeed, we have replicated our results using school govemment (beta of .09) both matter.
National Election Studies data and validated and Educational attainment has only a weak im pact,
self-reported votes.46 This does not mean, however, but this is because so much of its impact is
that education is unimportant. When we regress funneled through adult civic skills and political
political interest on formal educational experiences inter est. (Educational attainment is correlated at .
and language abili ties, we find that the impact of 48 with the average of adult civic skills and at .33
education on voting is funnelled entirely through with political interest.)
political interest. Educa The contrasting pattems for voting and performing
tional attainment (beta = .17), participation in high time-based acts, particularly in relation to skills and
school govemment (.19), and vocabulary (.17) a11 interest, bear elaboration. Because formal education
have an effect on political interest. (The effect on simultaneously stimulates political interest and incul
political interest of speaking English at home (.03) is cates civic skills, both interest and skills have signif
much smaller.) In summary, our work leads to a icant positive bivariate relationships with two forms
revised picture of voting as an act that is driven very of participation: voting and performing time-based
strongly by political interest and that requires little in acts. However, these equations demonstrate that
the way of money. Indeed, political interest is much while voting appears to require interest but much less
more important than resources if our main project is in the way of civic skills, time-based acts depend on
to explain voting turnout. civic skills as well as interest. In short, education
affects voting not so much by imparting skills as by
increasing political interest. In contrast, education
Money and participation in high school govemment have an
Our interest, of course, extends beyond voting. Mak impact on the performance of time-based acts by
ing political contributions is an increasingly im enhancing skills.
portant mode of citizen participation (Sorauf 1988). Free time is also worth more consideration. For
When it comes to explaining contributions, the re each of three of the time-based acts (working in a
source model provides striking results. We asked our campaign, getting involved informally on a
respondents whether they had made contributions to commu nity issue or problem, and serving on a
electoral campaigns or, in response to direct-mail local commu nity board or attending its meetings),
we asked activists the number of hours they give to
the activity

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 A Resource Model of Participation June 1995

Detenninants of Ditl'erent Types of Acts (Two-Stage Least Squares Estimations)

VOTING POLITICAL MONEY ACTS TAKING TIME
co-sr ($0-$5,SOOt (O-St
INDEPENDENT COEFF. BETA COEFF. BETA COEFF. BETA
VARIABLES (SE) WT. (SE) WT. (SE) WT.
Political interest .884** .542 16.0* .081 .191** .326
(.065) (8.1) (.023)
Sum of adult civic skills .200** .209 -5.5 -.047 .103** .298
(.044) (5.5) (.016)
Time and rnoney
Free time .129** .232 3.1 .045 .018** .091
(.018) (2.2) (.006)
Family income .013 .015 34.9** .341 .009 .031
(.018) (2.2) (.006)
Educationalexperiences
Years of education -.042 -.025 12.2* .060 .027 .045
(.044) (5.4) (.015)
High school govemance .003 .001 5.4 .017 .081** .087
(.054) (6.6) (.019)
Language ability
Speaking English at home -.025 -.003 -13.3 -.015 .066 .025
(.174) (19.5) (.055)
Vocabulary score .058* .049 .8 .006 -.009 -.020
(.027) (3.3) (.009)
Citizenship 4.110** .147 26.1 .014 -.002 -.000
(.575) (40.3) (.115)
Constant -3.563** -236.5** -1.168
(.593) (52.5) (.149)
R2 .235 .138 .202
Sample size 2,322 2,430 2,430

lvement, attendance at chmch, time in church actlvities, Catholic, years of education, involvement in high school govemance, speaking English at home, vocabulary score, family income, black, Hi

"Board or meetings, informal, campaign, contact, and protest.

•p s .os.
.. p s .01.

each week. When we limit the analysis to the 16%

of our respondents who devote an hour or more the pattem for making political contributions is quite
per different. Income is determinative for the decision to
donate, as well as the size of the contribution.
week to one of these activities (n = 393), we find a
very strong relationship between the total number of The different effects of political interest, dvic skills,
hours given and the amount of free time available. time, and money on participatory acts provide part of
Roughly speaking, each additional hour of free time the explanation for the well-known multidimension
per day leads to about one-third more hour of polit ality of political partidpation (Verba and Nie 1972).
ical activity per week.49 Thus the amount of free time Because different acts require different kinds of re
available seems espedally important for the amount sources and more or less political interest, they form
of time people give to activities. What we observe, distinct clusters. Our model provides a way of ex
then, is a two-stage process of political activation. plaining the existence of these clusters. It also dem
Political interest and resources like adult civic skills onstrates why formal education is so highly corre
have a major impact on the decision to participate lated with virtually every political act. Education
(free time has a minor impact as well), but constraints affects political participation in at least two separate
on free time control the amount of the time-based ways: for sorne activities, espedally voting, education
politi cal activity once this decision is made. instills political interest and partidpatory motiva-
Interestingly,

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American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2

tions; for others, especially those that require time,

political participation in America. A model that in
education leads to skills that facilitate activity. 50
eludes resources has several advantages in explaining
political activity. Resources can be measured more
THE IMPACT OF RESOURCES reliably than is possible with the motivations (e.g.,
efficacy or political interest) that often are used to
ON POLITICAL ACTIVITY explain activity. Furthermore, they are causally prior
to political activity, deriving from home and school,
While it is beyond our scope here to describe the choices about jobs and family, and involvements in
many ways that differences in resources contribute to nonpolitical organizations and churches. The civic
different rates of participation across groups distin skills that facilitate participation are not only acquired
guished by income, race, ethnicity, or other charac in childhood but cultivated throughout the life cycle
teristics, we can give a few illustrations of the effects in the major secondary institutions of adult life. In
on political activity of changes in resources. this way, the institutions of civil society operate, as
Tocqueville noted, as the school of democracy.
Church Involvement. Consider an otherwise average The resource model permits us to go beyond the
person who has no involvement with a religious "standard SES model" in two ways. First, by
institution. If he or she joins a church and begins to moving to a more general level and specifying the
attend services weekly and to devote an additional resources derived from socioeconomic position that
three hours a week to other church activity, this can be applied to politics, the model establishes the
person will perform approximately two more church mecha nisms that link SES to participation. In
skill-acts (for the coefficients for church activity and addition, by moving beyond SES and
attendance at church, see Table A-1), which will encompassing other re sources not based on
produce an increase of political acts from the average socioeconomic position (e.g., pattems of religious
of 1.63 to 2.0 (see the left-hand column of Table 3). affiliation or involvement in nonpolitical
This increase represents over 25% of the standard organizations), we move toward an un derstanding
deviation (1.35) of the summary acts measure. of the disparities in activity among po litically
relevant groups distinguished by character istics
Income. Consider an otherwise average person (e.g., race, ethnicity, or gender) in addition to SES.
whose income goes up by $10,000. The middle col Finally, the resource model illumines American
umns of Table 4 suggest that in consequence, this politics. We have seen that different resources are
person's political contributions will increase over 50% differentially available to various politically relevant
from an average of $66 to $101. groups and differentially critical for various kinds of
activity. To give a reductionist version of our find
Free Time. Finally, consider the impact of children. If ings-political interest is especially important for
there are preschool children at home, a person loses tumout; civic skills, for acts requiring an investment
3¼ hours of free time each day. This means, based of time; and money, for acts involving an investment
upon the preceding analysis, that among those peo ple of money. To the extent that money is the least
who are already putting in at least an hour a week in equally distributed resource and to the extent that
political activities, the addition of preschool chil dren making contributions has become in recent decades
will reduce their total time spent on informal community an increasingly important citizen activity, the charac
activity, campaign work, board member ship, or ter of American politics is profoundly altered.
attending meetings by about an hour per week.5 1
In each of these cases, the ordinary changes that
people experience in their lives Goining a church and
attending a Bible-study class, getting a large raise, or APPENDIX A: THE QUESTIONS
having a baby) affect the amount of political
resources available and thus lead to significant SES and Social Characteristics
changes in political participation. Most importantly Income. Which of the income groups listed on this card includes
from the perspective of understanding pattems of the total 1989 income before taxes of all members of your family
participa tion, changes in life circumstances have living in your home? Please include ali salaries, wages, pensions,
different impacts on time, money, and civic skills; divi dends, interest, and ali other income. (If uncertain,) What
would be your best guess?
and these resources, in tum, have different links to
each kind of political act. Education.

What is the highest grade of regular school that you have com
CONCLUSION pleted and gotten credit for? (If necessary, add,) By regular
school we mean a school which can be counted toward an
elementary or high school diploma or a college or university
The model developed here demonstrates that moti degree.
vations such as interest in politics are not enough to Did you get a high school diploma or pass a high school equiva
explain political participation. The resources of lency test?
time, money, and skills are also powerful What is the highest degree you have earned?
Which of the categories on this card best describes the highest
predictors of educational leve! (mother/father) completed and got credit for?

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A Resource Model of Participation June 1995

Race and Ethnicity. Do you consider yourself Hispanic or Latino? D. given a presentation or speech
What is your race? E. contacted a government offi.cial?
Citizenship. Were you bom in the United States? (U no,) Are you an
American citizen? Religious Organimtions.
Work. Now on a different subject, what is your religious preference? Is it
Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, some other religion, orno religion?
Last week., were you working full-time for pay, working part-time What specific denomination is that, if any?
for pay, going to school, keeping house, or something else? Now I would like to ask you some questions about your religious
(Before you retired/In the last five years,) did you ever work foras activity. How often do you attend religious services?
long as one full year? U you average across the last twelve months, about how many
What kind of work (do you/did you) normally do? That is, what hours per week did you give to (church/synagogue) work aside
(is/was) your job called? (U necessary, probe,) What (are/were) &om attending services?
your main duties? Here is a list of things that people sometimes have to do as part of
Here is a list of things that people sometimes have to do as part of their church/synagogue) activities. After I read each one, please
their jobs. After I read each one, please tell me whether or not tell me whether or not you have engaged in that activity in the
you have engaged in that activity in the last six months as part last six months as part of your (church/synagogue) activities.
of your job. Have you Haveyou
A. written a letter
B. gone to a meeting where you took part in making decisions A. written a letter
C. planned or chaired a meeting B. gone to a meeting where you took part in making decisions
D. given a presentation or speech C. planned or chaired a meeting
E. contacted a govemment official? D. given a presentation or speech
E. contacted a govemment offi.cial?
Is your (husband/wife/partner) currently working part-time for
pay, going to school, keeping house, or something else? Vocabulary. Now we would like to know something about how
people go about guessing words they do not know. 0n this card
Family Structure. are listed some words-you may know some of them, and you
How many children do you have living at home with you? Please may not know quite a few of them. 0n each line the first word is
include step- and adopted children living in your household. in capital letters-like BEAST. Then there are five other words. Tell
Is this child under age 5? How many of these children are under me the number of the word that comes closest to the meaning of
age 5? the word in capital letters. For example, if the word in capital
letters is
BEAST, you would say "4" since "animal" comes closer to BEAST
Language. What Ianguage do you usually speak at home-English
than any of the other words. U you wish, I will read the words
or something else?
to you. These words are diffi.cult for almost everyone-just give
me your best guess if you are not sure of the answer.
Institutional Involvements and Skills
Self-described Skills.
High School Government. How active were you in school govern
ment? Were you very active, somewhat active, not very active, or Imagine you went to a community meeting and people were
not at a1l active? making comments and statements. Do you think you speak well
enough to make · an effective statement in public at such a
Time. meeting?
U you did speak up, do you think people would paya lot of
About how many hours per day do you spend on necessary work attention to what you said, some attention, very little
for your home and family, including cooking, cleaning, taking attention, or none at all?
care of children or other relatives, shopping, house and yard Suppose you wanted to write a letter to someone in the govern
chores, and so forth? About how many hours in total do you ment-perhaps your member of Congress or a local city offi.
spend in an average day on such necessary activities for home cial-on some issue or problem that concerned you. Do you feel
and family? that you write well enough to write a convincing letter express
About how many hours do you spend on gainful employment in ing your point or do you feel that you do not?
an average day, including commuting and work that you take
home?
About how many hours do you spend studying for a degree or
enrolled in courses for a degree in an average day? Political lnterest and Political Activities
About how many hours of sleep do you average a night?
Interest in Politics.
Organimtional Involvements. Thinking about your local community, how interested are you in
Here is a list of organizations. Please read through this list and local community politics and local community affairs?
when you have finished, 1'11 have some questions. Are you How interested are you in national politics and national affairs?
a member of ---....:? [Screener item] How interested are you in politics?
Have you attended a meeting of the organization in the past twelve
months? Voting.
Does this organization sometimes take stands on any public
issues---either locally or nationally? In talking to people about elections, we find that they are some
Here is a list of things that people sometimes have to do as part times notable to vote because they're not registered, they don't
of their involvement with organizations. After I read each have time, or they have diffi.culty getting to the polis.
one, please tell me whether or not you have engaged in that Think about the presidential elections since you were old enoúgh
activity in the last six months as part of your involvement to vote. Have you voted in a1l of them, in most of them, in some
with this organization. Have you of them, rarely voted in them, or have you never voted in a
A. written a letter presidential election?
B. gone to a meeting where you took part in making decisions Thinking back to the national election in November 1988, when
C. planned or chaired a meeting the presidential candidates were Michael Dukakis, the
Democrat, and George Bush, the Republican, did you happen
to vote in that election?

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American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2

Campaign Work. Since January 1988, the start of the last in jobs, organizations, and churches are not highly correlated with
national election year, have you worked as a volunteer-that is, for
one another, ski1I acts will not be highly correlated even though
no pay at all or only for a token amount-for a candidate running
they are partly determined by individual skills. And there is no
for national, state, or local office? reason to expect a high correlation among institutionally based
opportunities to engage in skill acts. Though ski1ls are
Campaign Money. transferable and may be carried from one institutional setting to
Since January 1988, did you contribute money-to an individual another, there is little reason to expect that an individual involved
candidate, a party group, a political action committee, or any in one type of institution (e.g., having a job) would be more likely
other organization that supported candidates? to be involved in a different one (e.g., to attend church).
In your best estímate, about how much money in total did you lf skills are converted into skill-acts at the same rate across all
contribute since January 1988? threeinstitutional domains, then allc 1, Ci, and c3 wil1be equal. This
might be true, but it wil1 only show up in our data if we have
Contacting. exactly the correct functional form for equation A-1. This seems
unlikely.52 It is asking too much for the c1 to equal one another, but
In the past twelve months, have you initiated any contacts with a it is not asking too much to have the C¡ differ significantly from
federal elected official or someone on the staff of such an zero. lf a c1 is zero, then skills would not be a cause of skill-acts in
official: I mean someone in the White House or a Congressional that domam even though, as we shall see shortly, skills might still
or Senate Office? be a consequence of skill-acts. It seems unlikely to us, however,
What about a nonelected official in a federal government agency? that skill-acts would produce civic skills without a1so being a
Have you initiated a contact with such a person in the last product of civic skills. Therefore, the first requirement for our
twelve months? model is that all e¡ differ from zero.
What about an elected official on the state or local level-a
governor or
mayor or a member of the state legislature or a city or town Developing Skills
council--or someone on the staff of such an elected official?
And what about a nonelected official in a state or local A central assertion of the resource model is that skills result from a
government agency or board? Have you initiated a contact "learning process." Not only do people engage in skill-acts
with such a person in the last twelve months? because they have civic skills, they also develop skills because
they perform skill-acts. When they write letters or organize
meetings, people become more adept at these activities: their civic
Protesting. In the past two years, since (current month 1988), ski1ls increase. Language ability (vocabulary score and speaking
have you taken part in a protest, march, or demonstration on some Eng1ish at home) and formal educational experiences (educational
national or local issue (other than a strike against your employer)? attainment and participation in student government) a1so provide
skills:
Board Membership. Now some questions about your role in your
community. In the past two years, since (current month 1988), Skills = e+ d1 (Skill-Acts 1) + d2 (Skill-Acts 2)
have you served in a voluntary capacity-that is, for no pay at all or
for only a token amount--on any official issues such as a town + d3 (Skill-Acts 3) + "4 (Language Ability)
council, a school board, a zoning board, a planning board, or the + d5 (Formal Educational Experiences) + error, (A-2)
like?
where e is a constant and d1 through d5 indicate how skill-acts,
Attend Meetings. Have you attended a meeting of such an official language ability, and educational experiences are converted into
local government board or council in the past twelve months? civic skills. This equation wil1almost certainly be misspecified if
we omit major institutional settings that create ski1ls because we
Informal Community Work. Aside from membership on a board would expect a correlation between skill-acts in that domain and
or council or attendance at meetings, I'd 1ike to ask also about skill-acts in another domain. Thus it is of great importance that
informal activity in your community or neighborhood. In the past workplaces, organizations, and, churches encompass the major
twelve months, have you gotten together informally with or institutional settings where civic skills can be learned in
worked with others in your community or neighborhood to try to adulthood. lf all skill-acts were turned into skills at the same rate,
deal with some community issue or problem? (lf you have we would
expect d1, di,and da to be equal. This seems unlikely, however, for
mentioned this activity elsewhere, perhaps in connection with your
church or synagogue, oran organization or local campaign, don't several reasons: the functional form is uncertain, our measures of
repeat it here.) skill-acts miss the frequency with which people practice ski1ls in
each domain, and we did not ask in detall about the skill-acts
performed. For example, we might expect those who practice skill-
acts on the job to be more likely to learn from them because they
APPENDIX B: A LEARNING MODEL spend so much time at their jobs. However, if the skill-acts
performed on the job are merely routine, they would be less
FOR CIVIC SKILLS productive of skills. In any case, because we believe that engaging
in skill-acts develops skills, we expect d1, di, and d3 to be positive
Production of Sldll-Acts but not necessarily equal.
People engage in skill-acts when they are presented with
oppor tunities on the job, in organizations, or in church to write Sldll Opportunities from
a letter, malee a speech, organize a meeting, or participate in a
meeting and when they have enough preexisting skills to Institutional Involvements
respond positively to the opportunity. lf they lack either Opportunities for individuals to perform skill-acts in an institution
preexisting skills or opportuni ties to exercise them, then they depend upon institutional involvements and institutional types:
cannot carry out the activity. For each domain j, skill-acts are
the joint result of skill opportunities and preexisting skills: Skill Opportunities j = /j (lnvolvement j )
Skill-Acts j = a¡ + b¡ (Skill-Opportunities j) + g¡ (fype j) + error, (A3)
+ e¡ (Skills) + error, (A-1) where the intercept is zeró to determine the mean of the unob
served skill opportunities measure.
where a1is a constant and b¡ and C¡ indicate how skill-opportunities
and preexisting skills are converted into skill-acts. This equation
shows why all three measures of skill-acts can be useful indicators Defining the Variables
of skills even though they may not be highly correlated with one
another. To the extent that individual opportunities to exercise To estímate the equations for the development of civic ski1ls
ski1ls requires measures of skill-acts, ski1I opportunities in adult institu-

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 A Resource Model of Participation June 1995

TABLE A-1
Determinants of Each Adult Civic Skill: Two-Stage Least Squares Estimations
ADULT CIVIC SKILLS
ORGANIZATION
JOB SKILLS-ACTS SKILL-ACTS CHURCH SKILL-ACTS
INDEPENDENT COEFF. BETA COEFF. BETA COEFF. BETA
VARIABLES (SE) WT. (SE) WT. (SE) WT.

Self-described skills .595** (.045) .561 .286** (.034) .337 .135** (.020) .200

/nvo/vements in institutions
Working at job .742** (.034) .434
-.178* (.095)
Retirad from job

Organizational involvement .731** (.032) .458

Attendance at church .063** (.007) .167

.479**
(.015) .564
Time in church work
lnstitutional types
Occupational type .110** (.012) .187

Hierarchical church-.235** (.034) -.104

Constant -3.746** -2.630 -.987**
(.255) (.189) (.133)
R2 .433 .301 .484
Sample size 2,448 2,445 2,448

ype, degree of organizational involvement, attendance at church, time in church activities, Catholic, years of education, involvement in high school govemance, speaking English at home, voca

tions, language ability, formal educational experiences, as well as

a measure of civic skills themselves. The performance of skill- church activities, the dummy for a Catholic church, and the
acts in each of three domains is measured by a five-point scale measures of language skills and formal educational experiences.
(0--4) as described earlier.53 We did not measure skill opportunities For the single skills equation A-2, we can use all the measures of
di rectly, but use as proxies institutional involvements and types institutional involvements and types as instruments. In addition to
described, along with a11 the other variables in our model, in the the instrumental variables that arise naturally from the system of
main text. equations, we also use a set of individual characteristics that are
clearly exogenous. These are race (African American and a11
others), ethnicity (Latino and all others), family income in thou
Estimating the Equations sands of dollars, the average of parents' education on a nine-point
scale, gender, number of children at home, whether any children
Equations A-1 and A-2 are basic to a model of skill development are of preschool age, and whether or not the spouse is working
in which skill-acts are the result of having skills and getting the fu11 or part time.
opportunities to exercise them; and skills, in turn, are the result of Table A-1 reports the results of 2SLS estimations of the three
engaging in skill-acts, language ability, and formal educational skill-acts equations formed by substituting equation A-3 into A-1.
experiences. They form a system of equations in which self The first row shows the impact of self-described skills on each
described civic skills and skill-acts appear on both sides of the kind of skill-act. All three regression coefficients are highly
equations; these measures, then, are endogenous. A standard way significant, ranging from .13 to .59. A change of 1.5 in self-
to estimate equations of this sort is 2SLS (Hanushek and Jackson described skills (about one standard deviation) leads to .9 more
1977). This requires finding exogenous variables excluded from job skill-acts, .4 more organizational skill-acts, and .2 more
each equation that can be used as instruments. These are easy to church skill-acts. These are significant effects for self-described
find in this system of equations. For the three skill-acts equations
formed by substituting equation A-3 into A-1, we can use the civic skills measured on five-point scales, and they amount to .56,
measures of institutional involvements and institutional types that .34, and .20 standard deviation changes ("beta weights") in job
are not in the current equation and the measures of language skill-acts, organizational skill-acts, and church skill-acts
ability and formal educational experiences. For example, for the respectively.
equation for skill-acts on the job, we can use the measure of Not surprisingly, the degree of involvement in an institution
organizational affiliations, attendance at church, time devoted to (e.g., working full-time, rather than part-time) has a lot to do with
engaging in skill acts. In addition, it is striking how much the
type of institution-working in a higher-status occupation or
attending

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 American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2

TABLE A-2
Two-Stage Least Squares Estimates of Determinants of Self-Described Skills
RESPONDENT'S SELF-DESCRIBED CIVIC SKILLS
FIRST EQUATIONSECOND EQUATIONTHIRD EQUATION

INDEPENDENT COEFF. BETA COEFF. BETA COEFF. BETA

VARIABLES (SE) WT. (SE) WT. (SE) WT.
Adult ski/1-acts
Job .216** .229 .236** .251
(.030) (.029)
Organizational .148** .126
(.046)
Church .043 .029 .093* .063
(.041) (.038)
Sum .146** .262
(.018)
Formaleducaffonalexperiences
Years of education .080** .083 .102** .105 .108** .111
(.025) (.024) (.024)
High school governance .172** .114 .189** .126 .164** .109
(.029) (.028) (.029)
Language ability
Speaking English at home .119 .027 .120 .028 .129 .030
(.078) (.078) (.078)
Vocabulary seora .149** .217 .152** .222 .150** .218
(.014) (.014) (.014)
Constant 4.065** 4.008** 4.006**
(.171) (.171) (.170)
R2 .234 .231 .218
Sample size 2,448 2,448 2,448

l involvement, attendance at church, time in church activities, Catholic, years of education, involvement in high school govemance, speaking English at home, vocabulary score, family income, b

a Catholic church-matters for job skill-acts and church skill-acts statistically significant. When we omit both the organizational and
respectively. In fact, moving from a Catholic to a non-Catholic church skill-act measures (not reported), the regression sum of
church has about the same impact on church skill-acts as a one- squares becomes significantly smaller than when we include both
standard-deviation increase in self-described skills, and mov ing in the first equation. An F-test rejects the notion that we should
from the lowest to the highest rung on the nine-point occupa tional drop both variables. Finally, when we retum to the first equation
ladder has a greater impact than a one-standard-deviation increase and do a t-test to assess whether the coeffi.cients for
in self-described skills. organizational skill-acts and church skill-acts are equal, we find
The results in Table A-1 show that self-described civic skills that despite the apparent difference, we cannot reject the
and skill opportunities lead to skill-acts. This means that we can hypothesis that they are identical.54
use skill-acts as a rough measure of civic skills. It does not, Taken together, these results imply that the joint effect of
however, prove that people actually leam such skills through their organizational skill-acts and church skill-acts is not zero and that
involve ment in adult institutions. the two kinds of skill-acts have identical impacts. There is good
Using the same instruments as in Table A-1, Table A-2 estab reason, then, to believe that all three skill-act variables are impor
lishes this important point by showing that the three measures of tant deterrninants of civic skills. The third equation imposes the
skill-acts help explain self-described civic skills. Consider the constraint that all three skill-acts have the same impact by substi
results for the first equation. The coefficients for job skill-acts and tuting their average for each of them individually. An F-test
organizational skill-acts are highly significant. The coeffi.cient for implies that this is too strong an assumption, but the R-squared
church skill-acts is disappointing, but an examination of the and other statistics suggest that it is nota bad approximation to the
correlation matrix for the coeffi.cients reveals that there is a high truth.
correlation between the estimate for the impact of organizational Table A-1 shows how having skills leads to skill-acts, and Table
skill-acts and church skill-acts. The correlation of - .38 between A-2 shows how engaging in skill-acts leads to having more skills.
these two coeffi.cients means that the estimation procedure found Table A-2 contains an additional important finding. With the
it hard to distinguish one from the other. This suggests that if we exception of the measure of speaking English at home, the other
dropped one of them, the other one will "take up the slack." In the quite varied measures of civic skills (formal education, vocabulary
second equation, we drop the organizational skill-acts variable, score, and participation in high school govemment) all relate
and the impact of church skill-acts becomes much larger and significantly to self-described skills. This gives us confidence that

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A Resource Model of Participation June 1995

we are measuring a coherent phenomenon that can be called civic

skills. They express skepticism about "simple versions of the self
selection argument. To what extent do people choose their
location in the social structure? How many of us really
choose our workplace colleagues, our coreligionists, our
Notes neighbors? To the extent that we are able to exercise control
over our surroundings, do we use political criteria in
exercising such choice? Or do we choose a job because it
The authors would like to thank the National Science Foun pays well? A church because our parents raised us in it? And
dation, the Spencer Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and then we take the politics that accompanies the choice" (1993,
the Hewlett Foundation for generous support. Norman Nie 294). There is still the possibility that sorne resources may be
helped us design the Citizen Participation Study, and he produced through political activity. Although it is hard to see
contributed to the initial version of this paper. The Citizen how political activity would generate rather than consume
Participation Study has also benefitted from the unflagging free time, it can produce more income (e.g., if activists gain
and extremely able assistance of Tami Buhr, Nancy Burns, patronage jobs or favorable treatment for their businesses).
Chris Downing, Stephen Haggerty, William Hoynes, Jane Similarly, those who take part in politics may develop
Junn, Martin Petri, Kenneth Stehlik-Barry, and Liesbeth ter political skills "on the job," that is, leam and improve
Schure. political skills through their political activity. Although sorne
l. People also avoid politics because "they aren't allowed activists do generate political resources through their
to participate." This was a major reason for nonparticipation voluntary participation, politics is such a small part of the
in the United States at one time and it remains important in lives of even the most active citizens that most of their
many countries. income and skills must be amassed outside it.
2. Using an impressive time series of surveys, Rosenstone 7. Stratification theory describes the distribution of class,
and Hansen (1993) emphasize the importance of mobilization status, and power, and their consequences for the operation
by political leaders, mobilization around issues, and mobili of society (e.g., Bendix and Lipset 1966; Wright 1985). We
zation by political opportunities. Their data are especially shall show how money, time, and skills flow from class and
well suited for showing how the changing political status and how these resources are converted into political
environment encourages or discourages political participation.
participation. Our data are especially appropriate for 8. Milbrath and Goel note: "No matter how class is mea
describing the linkages from SES to resources to sured, studies consistently show that higher class persons are
participation. A complete theory of political participation
must synthesize both perspectives. more likely to participate in politics than lower class persons. . .
3. Our approach has strong affinities with resource mobi . This proposition has been confirmed in numerous countries"
lization theory in sociology, although we concentrate upon (1977, 92; emphasis original).
the resources available to individuals instead of the resources 9. Contrary to the logic of the theory, many people vote
available to social movement organizations. Social and join organizations even though they cannot possibly
movement theorists argue that organizations mobilize people hope to recoup their costs through their gains to self-interest.
by the skillful use of resources; we argue that resources are a If the range of self-interested benefits is, as it must be,
necessary condition for people becoming involved in politics. expanded to encompass such psychic benefits as the satisfac
The two theories converge in their emphasis upon the crucial tion of doing one's civic duty, then the theory becomes much
role of resources for political participation and in their less potent.
descrip tion of the relevant resources. McCarthy and Zald 10. Another rational choice approach dating back at least
(1977), for example, consider time and money and "skills in to Downs (1957) argues that lower information and
lobbying, accounting, and fund raising'' as the most basic transaction costs for well-educated people means that they
resources (pp. 1224, 1234). will be more likely to engage in politics. Not much has been
4. The SES-participation relationship is well documented; done to elucidate this approach. Our concept of civic skills,
the finding appears "with monotonous regularity" (Nagel however, explains why transaction and information costs
1987, 59). For citations of relevant literature, see Bennett and might be lower among the well-educated.
Bennett 1986, 183-186; Conway 1991, 21-27; and Milbrath 11. The Chicago school takes into account constraints on
and Goel 1977, 92. The SES-activity connection has been time as well as money (Becker 1965, 1976), the production of
elabo rated in multiple ways, including (1) differentiation commodities by the household (Michael 1973; Michael and
among political acts, usually distinguishing between voting Becker 1973), and investment in human capital (Becker
and "more difficult'' political acts, with the SES-participation 1975). In this theory, individual behavior is constrained by
relationship more potent for the latter (Verba and Nie 1972; income, time, and household production capabilities.
Verba, Nie, and Kim 1978); (2) analyses of the links between Household pro duction functions vary from person to person
SES and activity, usually focusing on such motivating atti depending upon accumulated skills, but production
tudes as political interest and efficacy (Almond and Verba capabilities can be improved through the investment of time
1%3; Bames and Kaase 1979; Kaase and Marsh 1979; Verba and goods in human capital. This is exactly the argument we
and Nie 1972; Verba, Nie, and Kim 1978) or on the different make here.
impacts of components of SES (Rosenstone and Hansen 12. The question was on total income from all sources for
1993; Wolfinger and Rosenstone 1980); (3) analyses of factors the family. With the exception of the lowest of the 16
that diminish the impact of SES, often focusing on the categories (which was scored at two-thirds of the range) and
mobilizing effects of organizational affiliations or such the highest (which was scored at one-and-a-half), responses
attitudes as group consciousness (Olsen 1982; Verba and Nie were scored at the midpoint of the range in thousands of
1972). dollars.
5. After noting that "remarkably little effort has been 13. We would have been able to generate more precise
devoted to explaining why certain resources matter and data if we had asked respondents to keep time-budgets
others do not," Wolfinger and Rosenstone unpack SES into instead of asking about a typical day, but this would have
its constituent parts and demonstrate that it is education, been too complicated and costly in a survey designed to
rather than income or occupation, that has consequences for cover a wide range of concems. In fact, the results based on
voting; but they cango no farther than to say, "We cannot our approxi mations accord very well with the results
measure all resources directly; instead, we infer them from contained in the literature on time use (e.g., Hill 1985). We
the indi vidual's demographic characteristics" (1980, 9). This did not ask about "free time" directly because pretesting
makes it hard for them to explain exactly how education has indicated that this concept had no clear-cut meaning to
an impact on tumout. We shall follow their lead by respondents, whereas the time spent working, doing
elaborating re sources and extending the analysis to forms of household work, studying and sleeping seemed meaningful to
participation other than voting. them. We concluded that there would be much more error in
6. Huckfeldt and Sprague take a similar position in their an ambiguous query about free time than in the total error
careful review of the literature on contextual effects in across all of our easily understood questions.
politics.

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American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2

14. On the similarities and contrasts between time and

money, see Sharp 1981 and Mincer 1962. stands on public issues to be nonpolitical. Unless otherwise
15. There is precedent for considering the role of civic specified, we are referring in our discussion to these nonpo
skills in facilitating participation. Strate and his colleagues litical organizations.
(1989) demonstrate the importance of "civic competence" for 23. There is an interaction with gender: in families where
voting tumout. However, the variables included in their both spouses work full-time, preschoolers reduce the hours at
measure of civic competence (e.g., attentiveness to politics home for a woman by 1.5 hours more than they reduce the
and level of political information) are explicitly political. hours at home for a man.
Therefore, we cannot be sure that they are not also a result as 24. The skill-act items have severa! attractive features con
well as a source of activity. Wald mentions the extent to sistent with the conclusion that they measure the acquisition
which "con gregational organizations may serve as leadership of transferable skills. For one thing, in each domain the four
training institutes for people who lack other means of items form similar Guttman scales (with differences explain
exposure to organizational skills" and cites studies that find a able by variations in chances to perform the skill from one
strong relationship between attendance at church services and domain to another) indicating that they measure something
elec toral tumout but not between religious attendance and common across institutions, not something specific to a
other forms of political activity (1992, 35). In his study of particular institution. In addition, one activity---contacting a
parish connected, non-Latino Catholics, Leege (1988) finds a govemment official-included in the list asked in each do main
rela tionship between parish activity and political activity and (though we did consider it not an opportunity to gain a civic
discusses the potential of parish activity for developing the skill but an actual political act) does not scale with the other
kinds of skills we measure here. activities, whether one uses Cronbach's alpha as a criterion,
16. Schooling affects participation in severa! ways: it loadings or communalities in a factor analysis, or the
fosters values conducive to participation, broadens social coefficient of determination for a Guttman scale. For
networks, and creates income-producing occupational example, the lowest loading for the four items in factor
opportunities. We shall retum to these themes. Here, we focus analyses of each domain is .527 while the loadings for
on the skill-creating aspect of education. contacting are .279, .446, and .385. This too is consistent with
17. The eight categories and their seores were (1) grammar the hypothesis that these activities are a common set.
school or less, (2) sorne high school, (3) high school graduate 25. The correlations are .30 between job skill-acts and
or GED, (4) sorne college, (5) college graduate, (6) sorne organization skill-acts, .09 between job skill-acts and church
graduate work, (7) master's degree, and (8) PhD. or profes skill-acts, and .29 between organization skill-acts and church
sional degree. Not much is gained by cluttering our equations skill-acts.
with dummy variables for these categories, so we have used 26. By using these scales in our regressions, we are assum
this eight-point scale throughout. ing a linear relationship between our dependent variables and
18. Participation in high school govemance might also each one of them. This tums out to be close to the truth in
measure a "taste" for participation. A close relationship every case. We have tried numerous specifications where we
between "tastes" and "skills" is predicted by George Stigler use dummy variables for each occupation, workplace status,
and Gary Becker (1977), who argue that as people develop leve! of attachment to organizations, and every other inde
skills in an area (e.g., baseball, music, politics), they will be pendent variable defined by a scale. The results are very
more likely to prefer the activity because they can derive close to those reported here, and using the scales simplifies
more and more pleasure from it at the same cost. Whether it the reporting of results.
measures tastes or skills, participation in high school gover 27. Ali that matters for our purposes is that self-described
nance belongs in our model. skills measure civic skills. Then our demonstration that self
19. Thomdike and Gallup describe this test as a "test of described skills are related to the exercise of skill-acts implies
verbal intelligence.... [that assesses] the nature of past that civic skills are related to skill-acts.
leamings and not the ability to make novel adaptations" 28. A count of activities is a simple and straightforward
(1944, 78-79). The mean of 6.20 (with standard deviation of measure that simplifies the initial presentation and analysis.
2.15) on our vocabulary score is close to the mean of 6.51 The extensive literature on the multiple dimensions of partic
(with standard deviation of 2.25) reported by Alwin for the ipation (Verba and Nie 1972) suggests the importance of
1989 GSS, which covered a slightly different population disaggregating this simple measure, and one of the strengths
(1991, 628, table 1). of the resource model is its ability to predict separate dimen
20. The vocabulary test may not be a very good measure of sions of participation, such as who is likely to give money,
verbal ability for a very small fraction of our sample. The work in campaigns, or engage in sorne other activities. The
1.8% of the sample who sometimes or always spoke another resource model does this by considering what is common
language at home besides English or Spanish (and therefore across people (i.e., resource constraints) while lumping to
did not have the choice of being interviewed in their own gether acts with varying issue content. As with standard
language) might have done better if they had been inter tumout models that typically do not take into account the
viewed in their native language. Our results, however, are multifarious issues that impel voters to go to the polls (e.g.,
not affected by excluding these people so we have left them Wolfinger and Rosenstone 1980), we assume for the resource
in our analysis. model that it makes sense to consign to the error term the
21. These facts suggest that the vocabulary score measures many issues that might motivate people to participate. On
something more than just schooling, but for our purposes the average, we suppose that these issue considerations are
exact relationship between vocabulary score and education is uncorrelated with the resources that constrain or enable their
not important. What is important is that the vocabulary score activity. Because we asked our respondents whether any
allows us to control for verbal ability wherever or however it specific issue motivated their participation, we have, how
has been obtained. ever, been able to show (in work available upon request) that
22. Voluntary associations vary substantially in the extent the resource model works for specific issue areas, as well as a
to which they are involved in politics. We isolated affiliations heterogeneous collection of them.
with nonpolitical organizations as follows. Respondents were 29. A number of papers have noted that respondents
presented a comprehensive list of 20 kinds of voluntary typically overreport forms of participation like these because
organizations (e.g., unions, professional associations, frater of a social desirability bias "in which cognitive dissonance can
nal groups, block clubs, political issue organizations). For lead to a rather consistent distortion of memory in order to
each category for which the respondent indicated an organi reinforce continued perception of oneself as a good citizen"
zational affiliation, we asked a series of follow-up questions (Cahalan 1968; see Anderson and Silver 1986; Hill and Hurely
about that organization (or, if more than one, about the one 1984; Katosh and Traugott 1981; Silver, Anderson, and
with which the respondent was most involved). Among these Abramson 1986; Volgy and Schwarz 1984; Weiss 1986). One
questions was whether the organization takes stands on explanation for our results could be that these same biases
public issues. We consider any organization that does not inflate reports of involvement in high school govemance,
take church attendance, and other activities leading to a spurious

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A Resource Model of Participatíon June 1995

correlation with political participation. We worried about this

possibility but rejected it for severa! reasons. First, social affects both resources and participation, then the error terms
desirability bias has to enter in a very specific way so that will obviously be correlated and the resources variables in the
sorne subgroups are more prone to it than others for it to participation equation will be correlated with the error term in
produce spurious results (Brady 1986). Second, the evidence the equation, which leads to specification bias (Achen 1986,
we have reviewed is consistent with the notion that social chap. 2).
desirability bias is a general human trait that is uncorrelated 36. So far, we have argued that we must include political
with specific characteristics of the respondents. This means interest in the participation equation and treat skill-acts and
that it would not bias our results at all (except for the political interest as endogenous. Family income and free time
intercept of our regressions because of overall overreporting). also present special problems. It seems likely that our mea
Third, if there are different forms of social desirability (sorne sures of these resources contain error, and this means that
people think that church attendance is desirable, others do OLS estimates of their coefficients will be biased in
not, then social desirability may lead to an underestimation of unpredict able ways. The conventional wisdom is that their
the importance of sorne factors because of what amounts to a coefficients will be biased toward zero and that other
classic errors in variables situation. Fourth, our questions "proxies" will pick up sorne of their effect. This is probably
were designed to maximize true recall and to minimize false often true, but other things can happen (see Achen 1985). We
reporting by asking details of each act so that we have tried to solve this problem for the family income measure by using
minimize social desirability bias to begin with. Fifth, the the income question on the screener to calculate the reliability
most crucial part of our model is the relationship between of the income measure. This is then used to construct a new
skills and participation; but if all of our skills are socially measure of income that is corrected for error. The family
desirable, then they should correlate because of this common income measure that we use in all the regressions here is the
fact. In fact, the correlations are .30 between job skill-acts predicted value from a regression of the follow-up measure
and organization skill-acts, .09 between job skill-acts and on the screener measure. This amounts to a correction for
church skill-acts, and attenuation. (We used the screener value for family income in
.29 between organizational skill-acts and church skill-acts. the small number of cases where only the screener variables
The lowest of these numbers is the upper bound on the was available.) Although a reasonable measure, family
possible amount of common social desirability bias. It is hard income measured in this way is clearly only an
to believe that a correlation of .09 could account for all of our approximation of the money available to an individual to use
results. A detailed memorandum available from the authors for political or other contri butions. To solve this problem for
elaborates upon this points. free time, we treat it as endogenous and we use family size,
30. The sum goes from 2 (not at all interested in either preschool children, work status, and other variables as
local or national affairs) to 8 (very interested in both). The instruments to purge it of error.
Pearson correlation of .54 between the two items compares 37. The computer code and the data for all of our runs are
favorably with the correlation of .55 between interest in available from the authors upon request and will be archived
national politics and a general interest in politics question on at the ICPSR at the University of Michigan.
the screener. (Interest in local politics and the screener 38. We model the simultaneity between political interest
question correlate at and political participation by assuming that current participa
.50.) tion depends directly upon current interest (and other factors,
31. Beta weights are not a perfect way to measure the of course), which, in tum, depends upon current participa tion
importance of a variable (Achen 1982), but they are conve and past interest. Past interest is measured by a question on a
nient for making comparisons across variables. screener interview 6 to 12 months before the final interview.
32. An altemative to the linear form would be the assump In this setup, even if both interest items are measured with
tion that participation requires the interaction (or product) of error, 2SLS provides consistent estimates for the participation
political interest and resources, but the logarithm of this equation. We can supply this proof upon request.
functional form would be a linear form in the logarithms of 39. Another possibility is that interest and skills are
each variable. It might be worth testing this functional form if picking up the effects of variables that appear in the OLS
the measures in the equation had a known metric (e.g., estimation but are omitted from the 2SLS version based
quantities or prices in a typical economics problem); but upon our theoretical assumptions. If our theory is right,
almost all the measures in the equation have an unknown then they should be omitted. If our theory is wrong, then
metric, so we cannot be sure that we should take their they should be included, but this leaves us with no
logarithms. Our approach to this problem is to stick with the instruments for solving the endogeneity problem. If
simple linear form in the text. Another approach is to include endogeneity is not a problem, of course, then the OLS
an interaction term of, say, political interest and the sum of estimation suggests that these variables should be omitted.
civic skills to see if it matters. In fact, it does, with a highly We are stymied, then, only in the case when endogeneity
significant t-statistic of 5.93; but we do not believe that this is a problem and our theoretical assump tions are wrong.
really takes us beyond what we already know from the linear 40. The appropriate x2 test is described by Judge and his
formulation that can be considered the first term in a Taylor colleagues, and the value of 1.92 with two degrees of
series approximation of a product. Still another approach is to freedom (highly insignificant with a probability value of
try out many altemative functional forms including the loga about .35) strongly supports the null hypothesis that the
rithm of participation, a Poisson regression, logarithms of coefficients are equal to one another (1985, 614).
sorne of the independent variables (e.g., family income), and 41. The impact of free time becomes insignificant when
dummy variable versions of scales for occupation, education, we include dummy variables for working and retirement in
work status, and many other variables. Our results remain the the equation because these two variables are so highly
same under these alternative specifications. correlated with free time. This suggests the fragility of this
33. Measures of involvement in high school sports or result, but it also raises questions about how we should think
having taken high school civics courses, by the way, had no about the impact of work and retirement on participation. It
impact on political participation or on the development of seems likely that work increases participation through the
civic skills as reported in Appendix B. develop ment of skills Qob skills and working are correlated
34. Nevertheless, when we consider various political acts at .605) and decreases participation by reducing free time
separately, we shall see that political interest is not uniform in (free time and working are correlated at -.626). These seem to
its impact on all modes of participation. be the main routes by which working can have an impact so
35. This describes a "triangular" system of causation in that once job skills and free time are included in an equation
which participation is explained by resources and sorne other for participation, working (and retirement) should be
exogenous variables and resources, in tum, are explained excluded. When we do include working in an equation with
only by the other exogenous variables. It is well known that job skills, free time, and many other variables, we find that it
triangular systems can be estimated consistently by OLS only has a negative coefficient and that free time appears to have
if the error terms are uncorrelated. If there is sorne unob no impact. Yet we can think of no consequence of working,
served factor such as a taste for organizational activity that other

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American Political Science Review Vol. 89, No. 2

than its reduction of free time, which would cause its coeffi
cient to be negative. Moreover, the estimated coefficients for 49. A regression of the total number of hours spent work
working and for free time are correlated at .609 with one ing on a campaign, getting involved informally on a commu
another, suggesting that working is acting in place of free nity issue, and serving on a local community board or
attending its meetings for just those with nonzero time on the
time. Of all our results, the impact of free time is the most
independent variables of resources (time, income, the sum of
fragile; but there is strong evidence (discussed later that free
adult civic skills, participation in high school govemance,
time, at the very least, affects the number of hours given to
education, vocabulary score, speaking English at home),
time-intensive participation once the decision to participate is
political interest, and citizenship shows that only free time
made.
matters. Skeptics might suggest that this result might be
42. Another test of our model would be to include mea produced by sorne artifact in the way we measure time.
sures of recruitment to politics and measures of psychological Perhaps sorne people consistently under- or overestimate
engagement other than interest. In other work ('I erba, Schloz how much time they spend on activities in politics and in
man, and Brady 1995), we have estimated both OLS and other parts of their lives. In fact, if this were the case, it would
2SLS versions of our models after adding political efficacy, create a negative correlation between free time (which is
partisan strength, political interest, political information, and measured as 24 minus the hours devoted to paid work,
a mea sure of recruitment to politics. We found no substantial household maintenance tasks and child care, school, and
change in our results. sleep) and political activity.
43. In the language of econometrics (Granger 1990; 50. The impact of education is broader still, affecting the
Leamer 1990), we have investigated the "fragility" of our networks people are in, as well as the likelihood that they will
results regarding civic skills and income and found that be in high-paying jobs. We explore these connections in later
altemative specifications lead to the same result. As noted in publications.
n. 41, our results regarding free time are more fragile than the 51. In this case, it matters whether our average person is
others. male or female. Since a working woman loses more free time
44. Ax' test where the null hypothesis is the equality of the than a man when there is a preschooler at home, the impact
three coefficients for the skills variables in the voting on the amount of time she gives .to time-based political
equation yields a value of 3.36 which is not even significant activities will be that much greater.
at the .10 leve! so that we cannot reject the null hypothesis 52. It seems unlikely for two reasons. First, it seems im
Oudge et al. 1985, 614). probable that we have hit upon the ideal way to measure skill-
45. The impact of citizenship is, of course, to be expected. acts in our first try. There are probably sorne difficulties
We include it, rather than running the equation for citizens comparing our measures across domains. Second, equation
only (which might seem appropriate), because it enables us to A-1 is basically a "production function" for skill-acts from
see the impact of the resources over and above this obviously skills and opportunities. This suggests altemative functional
potent variable. In addition, we want to compare the role of forms. For example, skill-acts might be a function of the
citizenship in connection with voting with its impact on other product (or interaction) of skills and opportunities as in a
acts for which it is nota requisite. Cobb-Douglas production function, but by simply taking
46. This becomes apparent using the 1990-93 National logarithms we could get the linear form in the text. Knowing
Election Studies panel. An OLS regression of self-reported as little as we do about the proper functional forms, it is
vote for 1992 on education and interest in the campaign (there better to stay with the simple linear formulations.
was no general interest question in 1992) yields beta coeffi 53. Those not involved in an institution were scored at
cients of .22 and .34 respectively. Because interest in the zero. However, those scored at zero are not necessarily
campaign is likely to be unreliable and endogenous, the 1990 completely without skills. Hence, our observation of skills is
campaign interest measure is used as an instrumental variable censored by whether or not the person was involved in a
for it, and then the beta weights go to .08 for education and particular institution. One of the reasons for constructing the
.90 for interest. (The regression coefficient on education is model in the text is to overcome this difficulty by including
barely significant at the .05 level in a sample of 1,242.) The the major institutions in which someone might develop skills.
1990 campaign interest measure is an excellent instrument for In this section only, we measure skill-acts in all kinds of
1992 campaign interest if the only problem with interest is organi zations; elsewhere we refer to nonpolitical
due to its unreliability. If campaign interest is also organizations only. For the job skill-acts we imputed sorne
endogenous, then we need a still better set of instruments like missing data. Descrip tion of the method and code used to
those used here. Nevertheless, using lagged campaign interest impute these data can be obtained from the authors.
at least solves the reliability problem, and it must be 54. This test involves asking whether the difference be
considered better than using simple OLS, which has typically tween the coefficients for organization skill-acts and church
been done in the literature. We get similar results when we skill-acts is zero. The test requires knowing the covariance
use self-reports about voting in 1988 from the same data set between the estimates of these two coefficients, ascertained
with betas of .11 for education and .44 for campaign interest. from their correlation and the standard errors for each coef
Finally, because self-reports of voting might be strongly ficient as reported in the table. The value for the t-test is 1.45,
driven by interest whereas validated votes might not be well short of statistical significance.
(perhaps because of sorne social desirability bias), we also
used validated vote in 1988. (Our data file did not have
validated vote for 1992.) The results were a beta of .03 for
education (with a standard error larger than the regression
coefficient) and .43 for campaign interest. References
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Henry E. Brady is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of

California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720.
Sidney Verba is Professor of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
02138.
Kay Lehman Schlozman is Professor of Political Science, Boston College, Chestnut
Hill, MA 02167.

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