Abstract
Political scientists maintain that self-interest should motivate political participation; however, empirical verification of the self-interest motive for participating is rare. Self-interested activism among the less-affluent is shown to be even more uncommon. Results of the present study suggest that when lower-income college students have resources and increased self-interest motives to act, not only do they choose to participate, they do so at higher levels than their more affluent peers. Utilizing policy-motivated activism (defined as voting, contributing, and contacting officials) with respect to student loans, the analysis suggests that the probability of contacting increases among student borrowers as their income decreases. Results suggest that lower-income borrowers are more likely to participate out of concern for the program than their higher-income counterparts, and self-interest explains the behavior.
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Notes
While one might compare participation rates based on loans versus grants, the survey does not include grant measures. The participation measures are included as follow-up questions to loaners exclusively. It also seems unlikely to expect that grants would generate any meaningful differences to loans.
Similar results occur with Campbell’s (2002) study, which examines how Social Security motivates senior citizens to participate in politics. Her sample size is reduced to 235 cases, and as a result the coefficient for income does not meet traditional levels of statistical significance in the model.
The variable for organizational involvement causes collinearity issues and is dropped from the contributing model. The same problem is not present in the contacting model.
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I would like to express my gratitude to Melissa Jarrell, Charles Ozymy, and Melissa Stewart for their comments, suggestions, and assistance in preparing the article.
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Ozymy, J. The Poverty of Participation: Self-Interest, Student Loans, and Student Activism. Polit Behav 34, 103–116 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-010-9154-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-010-9154-5