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closely with higher participation scores? Factor analysis was used first to check whether the
same group of persons is consistently more active with respect to each of these activities.
Regression analysis was employed next to discern the characteristics of individuals who
participate more actively than others.
The results of factor analysis show that it is nearly always the same individuals who
participate highly in campaigning, contacting, and attending meetings and rallies. Individuals’
responses to six different survey questions were highly correlated with each other, and all of
these responses loaded highly on a single common factor.
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Some people are “high participators.” Such people have high scores on each of the six
participation variables: They campaign vigorously for political candidates, they influence other
villagers’ choices at election time, they attend gram sabhas regularly, and they are in contact
frequently with panchayat representatives. Other villagers are “low participators”: They are not
active in election campaigns, they do not usually attend political rallies or meetings of the gram
sabha, and they contact panchayat representatives much less regularly than other villagers.
Villagers who participate actively in any one political activity associated with panchayats,
tend to participate equally actively in all other activities considered here. Villagers who are
relatively inactive with respect to any one of these activities tend to be inactive also with respect
to the other activities.
What distinguishes more active from less active villagers? To address this question, a 100-
point Index of Political Activity was constructed by taking an adjusted sum of scores of the six
separate survey items related to campaigning, contacting representative, and attending meetings
and rallies. Since they are all so closely correlated with each other, variables representing these
Convention