Participating as Equals? : Disentangling the complex relationships between resources, incentives and political participation using Dutch panel data

Abstract: This study investigates the driving forces of political participation in the Netherlands from a perspective of political equality. Following an article by Jan Teorell (2006) a procedural approach of political equality is examined by studying whether resources or incentives make up the primary driving forces of political participation. An equality hypothesis is derived from normative democratic theory perspectives of participation. The hypothesis is divided in two parts. 1a. and 1b. state that resources should have no direct impact on political participation and incentives should have a direct impact on political participation. Hypotheses 2.a. and 2.b. state that resources do not have an impact on incentives known to impact political participation and that incentives have an impact on resources known to impact political participation. The Dutch panel data LISS (Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences) is used and cross-lagged effect models test the hypotheses. The panel data approach improves on previous research in that it ensures the correct temporal order of cause and effect. This helps us better understand the causal relationships at hand compared to previous cross-sectional approaches in the literature. This also enables us to disentangle the effects of all different factors on each other. The results show that while incentives do have some effect on political participation, resources remain significant when controlling for incentives. Furthermore, the results show that resources and incentives are tangled and have several reciprocal relationships with each other as well as political participation itself. In light of these findings, it is concluded that opportunities for political participation are not equal in the Netherlands, despite it being a least-likely case for political inequality. Additionally, the relationships between resources, incentives and political participation in relation to political equality are more complex than normally assumed in the literature.