Politiskt deltagande på internet - en teoriprövande studie av Civic Voluntarism Model

Sammanfattning: The right to participate and influence politics is fundamental in all democracies, and the possibility to do so should be equal among all citizens. In reality however, participation tends to mirror underlying structures in society. This thesis will examine the role of the internet as an arena for civic engagement due to inconsistencies in the existing research. The question is whether the internet could be considered more equal than other modes of participation, or if it follows the same societal patterns. A well-established theory for explaining political participation is the Civic Voluntarism Model that identifies three explanatory factors for determining participation; resources, motivation and recruitment networks. This thesis aims to examine whether these three factors can be used to develop a deeper understanding of the groups that participates on the online arena. Using data from the European Social Survey, this thesis investigates online political engagement in 21 countries. Empirical results from the logistic regression models find that the groups who participates online partly follows the same patterns as offline modes of participation, and it can furthermore mobilize individuals who are usually not active.