Trends in Civic Association Activity in Four Democracies: The Special Case of Women in the United States
- 23 June 2006
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in American Sociological Review
- Vol. 71 (3), 376-400
- https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240607100302
Abstract
This study assesses whether civic association activity has declined in four Western democracies: Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Influential accounts of decreasing civic engagement in the United States lead to the expectation of similar patterns in the other three nations. The authors test this hypothesis using data from time-use surveys of adult national samples for the mid-1960s to the late 1990s. One major finding is a clear decline in association activity in the United States, especially after 1975, but relative stability in the other three countries. Equally important are further results indicating that the American decline pertains only to women. Findings are sustained even after controlling for social background characteristics and four other activities (television watching, paid work, childcare, and physical activity). The analysis casts doubt on the theory that declining civic association activity in the United States reflects generational differences. Possible explanations for the reduced activity among American women, including lower levels of state support, are considered.Keywords
This publication has 37 references indexed in Scilit:
- Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries in the Second Half of the 1990sPublished by Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) ,2005
- Estimation des tendances de l’engagement dans les associations volontaires au cours des dernières décennies au Québec et au Canada anglais1Sociologie Et Societes, 2004
- Great Britain: The Role of Government and the Distribution of Social CapitalPublished by Oxford University Press (OUP) ,2002
- Nations of Joiners: Explaining Voluntary Association Membership in Democratic SocietiesAmerican Sociological Review, 2001
- Has Voluntary Association Activity Declined? Cross‐national Analyses for Fifteen Countries*Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 2001
- Modernization and PostmodernizationPublished by Walter de Gruyter GmbH ,1997
- Regression ModelsPublished by SAGE Publications ,1996
- Voluntary Association Membership in Fifteen Countries: A Comparative AnalysisAmerican Sociological Review, 1992
- Survey Research and Membership in Voluntary AssociationsAmerican Journal of Political Science, 1988
- Effect Displays for Generalized Linear ModelsSociological Methodology, 1987