Voluntary Association Joining: A Cross-National Comparative Note

Secondary analysis of data from national surveys of Americans, Canadians and adults in four other countries are offered in order to provide perspective on the as a nation of joiners observation and related propositions in the literature. The broad hypotheses considered are that: (1) the uniqueness and scope of the American pattern of association joining have been overemphasized; and (2) previous American findings on correlates of association membership should obtain in other democracies as well. For each nation, findings on the relationship of membership to social class, sex, age level and marital status are in essential agreement with earlier American findings. Results on affiliation by community size indicate no consistent direct relationships. Subgroups of Canadians and Americans have similar, comparatively high, proportions of memberships. Analysis of memberhip by sex shows that the uniqueness of the affiliation patterns in these two countries may be, in large part, a result of national differences in the participatory roles of women.