29
variety of ways. Variations in political interest, for instance, were taken into account.
Even if there is some self-selection present, political chat appears to make a difference to
political activity beyond one’s propensity to seek it out.
Explaining Second-Stage Bias
Two stages of bias have been demonstrated in America’s voluntary organizations.
It is not merely the case that the wealthy, for instance, tend to benefit more from
voluntary group activity because they are more likely to join. Their organizational
experience appears to be qualitatively different from that of joiners with fewer financial
resources. The wealthy are more likely to practice civic skills relevant to politics, get
recruited directly into political activity, and chat about politics at group meetings.
Voluntary organizations do not promote participation equally among all of their
members: they are biased decidedly toward joiners of privilege. Why?
One possibility may be an artifact of membership patterns themselves. Privileged
Americans may be more likely to join the types of organizations that promote
participation more readily. For instance, if service clubs provide more training in civic
skills and greater exposure to political chat, and privileged Americans are more likely to
join them than those less fortunate, this could explain the second-stage disparities
observed in Figures 2 to 4. Bias in participation-promoting experiences would be no less
real, but it would have less to do with intra-organizational patterns of discrimination and
more to do with the membership choices of individuals themselves.
Convention