Social Involvement and Political Activity: A Replication and Elaboration

The inter-related effects of three factors-socio-economic status, organizational involvement, and alienation-on political participation are shown, using data from a general population sample of three small Midwestern towns. All are associated with participation, but in a secondorder partialling operation, alienation drops out as a predictor. This is attributed to the simultaneous correlation of alienation with socio-economic status and organizational involvement. Organizational involvement, despite its high correlation with socio-economic status, exerts an independent effect. A method of summarizing partial operations in percentage tables with a single coefficient of association is introduced. Processes through which organizational involvement might be associated with political participation are considered.