Citizen-initiated Contacts with Government Agencies: A Test of Three Theories

Citizen-initiated contacts with government agencies are now recognized as an increasingly important form of political participation, yet a form not as easily explained as are most traditional forms of political participation. This report attempts to explain those contacts through an analysis of survey data on contacts with ten departments of municipal government in Cincinnati, Ohio. The research first tested the prevailing theories of contacts, the traditional and the newer parabolic model, and found both wanting. The research then developed a new clientele participation model, which argued that contacts are a function primarily of the individual's perceived needs for an agency's services and secondarily of the socioeconomic model, presumably the general political attitudes and information that also affect traditional forms of political participation. This model proves to be a much better predictor of the Cincinnati contacts than is either the socioeconomic model alone or the parabolic model.