Portraits of Participation : An interview study on the effects of social learning theory mechanisms on political participation

Abstract: If democratic society is to avert the dire straits that may come from decreasing levels of political participation and civic engagement, all potential explanatory factors must be explored. The purpose of this paper is to i) elucidate how the modeling and self-efficacy mechanisms of social learning theory affect individuals’ decisions to participate politically or not, and ii) assess the applicability of the relatively unutilized social learning theory in studies on political socialization and participation, respectively. By conducting a study composed of life history interviews, the paper aims to contribute to the research field by providing new explanations on how and why participatory behavior occurs in individuals, potentially filling a research gap by using and developing the previously unutilized social learning theory. The study finds that the proposed social learning theory mechanisms appear to have some explanatory power in the context of individuals’ political participation and asserts that social learning theory may very well be applicable in similar future studies as a complement to other explanatory factors.