Participation and Attitudes toward Civil Liberties: Is there an "Educative" Effect?

Abstract

It has often been suggested that participation in politics has an "educative" effect on the outlook of the participants (cf. Pateman, 1970). This claim is examined with particular reference to basic attitudes toward civil liberties utilizing data from the Attitudes Toward Civil Liberties in Canada project. The central finding of the paper is that a person's values and level of participation interact in a fashion consistent with the educative-effect hypothesis. Statistical models are presented showing that the role of basic values in making judgements about civil liberties issues varies (in both degree and kind) with the extent of political involvement, just as with education. Close examination of the relative importance of political involvement and education reveals that while education is the more important of the two in promoting support for civil liberties, participation has an important additional effect among those who are highly educated.

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