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Group-based civic skills and recruitment significantly enhance the likelihood of
participation – to be expected given their emphasis in the literature. Civic skills have a
smaller effect on participation than recruitment, based on a comparison of the betas. This
may not be surprising. Recruitment can underwrite both the direct and indirect costs of
participation, while the effects of civic skills are solely indirect.
The experience of organizational leadership did not prove significant in predicting
participation. Earlier I raised the possibility that leadership may be highly correlated with
civic skills. Civic skills and leadership are only moderately correlated (r = .52), and
removing skills from the model does not markedly change the coefficient on leadership.
It remains insignificant and shifts from .03 to .06. Similarly, when leadership is removed,
the coefficient on skills is unchanged and remains significant. Multicollinearity does not
appear to explain the weakness of organizational leadership in the model. The above
hypothesis regarding organizational leadership is not supported.
Motivations for Involvement
One of the boldest claims made in this study is that a community- or other-
regarding perspective honed in the group context can stimulate political participation.
Contemporary scholars have resoundingly favored self-interest as the key motivation for
all types of political behavior, including participation. The results in Table 1 suggest that
non-self-interested motivations also play a part in motivating involvement.
Four different types of motivation for group activity are tested in the model; three
proved significant. Being motivated to help the community, nation, or others each had
Convention