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uniformly enjoyed by all group members. Do privileged joiners disproportionately enjoy
the participation-promoting benefits of group membership? Are men, for instance, more
likely to be recruited to political action through their group ties than women? Are white
joiners more likely than non-white joiners to hold positions of leadership that make them
more likely to participate in politics? If voluntary associations are structured in ways that
worsen inequalities in political participation, their hallowed place in democratic theory
and American politics may warrant reexamination.
The study proceeds in two parts. First, a model of political participation is
developed with specific attention paid to mechanisms of organizational influence. This
model goes well beyond the standard reasons offered in the literature for the joiner-
participation link. The model is tested using data from the 1990 Citizen Participation
Study (Verba, Schlozman, Brady and Nie 1995). Second, features of voluntary
organizations shown to promote participation in part one are examined more closely to
determine whether certain members enjoy them disproportionately. Implications of biases
based on gender, race and class are then discussed.
THE JOINER-PARTICIPANT LINK
Recent studies have tended to focus on just two mechanisms by which voluntary
organizations promote political participation among their members. First, group members
are said to pick up politically-relevant skills that make it easier for them to engage in
democratic politics. Second, group members are more likely to participate because their
Convention