In Conclusion: The Future of Political Action in Western Democracies

Abstract

It is the melancholy fate of people who do survey studies such as these to be told that they laboured long and hard only to find out what everyone knew already. Since its first appearance in 1979, the Political Action Study appears to have escaped much of this fate. Readers persisting this far will have seen sufficient innovation in method and analysis to be able to conclude that the study uncovered a new and different picture of mass political participation compared with that commonly found in earlier texts. Those reaching this conclusion will find themselves in broad agreement with professional reviewers. Not that these were uncritical, of course, but a consensus said that the study showed something new. Let us review the main points in a way that will set the findings of the study into the context of modern political change: