The Microenvironment of Political Participation

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Abstract
This article investigates the claim that individual political participation is affected by the tendency of politically significant others to participate, particularly if that other is a spouse. Models of reported turnout, validated turnout, and campaign activity are developed that explicitly model the relationship between pairs of political discussants. These models are estimated using a unique data set collected in South Bend, Indiana during the 1984 presidential election that includes direct information for both respondents and individuals named as political discussants. The results show that the likelihood of participation increases as discussants become more likely to participate. Spouses are found to be particularly important types of discussants in the case of turnout, but not when campaign activity is the measure of participation.

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