Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Assessing a Measurement Model for Digital Political Participation: A Multidisciplinary Point of View

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Empowering Open and Collaborative Governance

Abstract

The events of the past year have drawn the attention of public opinion to the importance that the Internet can have for political and social change. Both the so-called Arab Spring and the Icelandic and Spanish new social movements were born and developed on the Internet. These movements are raising questions and arousing interest in the new type of political participation that is emerging through this tool: digital political participation (DPP). Our starting point is that we do not consider DPP as part of the broader concept of traditional political participation, but we consider it as a form of participation in itself. So, it is necessary to create a tool that would allow its measurement in order to understand what the limits and potential of this new phenomenon are. Thus, the objective of this study is to build a statistical tool to measure DPP together with the constructs that influence its implementation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    When we refer to beneficial advanced Internet uses, we mean the ones that allow us to satisfy concrete individual needs by means of the consecution of concrete ‘digital’ objectives, offering higher quality of life, preferences and expectation fulfilment to the Internet user (Stafford et al. 2004; Min 2010).

  2. 2.

    Multiphase cluster sampling. Non-stratified sample. The use of the sample has required weighting. There are three reference populations: national, Andalucia and youth between the ages of 18 and 44. For a 95.5% statistical level of confidence (two sigmas), and P = Q, the real error is ±1.64% for the whole sample and on the assumption of simple random sampling (CIS 2007).

  3. 3.

    In each of the analyses, the sample adjustment index KMO has a near one value. This shows us that the partial correlations among the variables are small enough to allow for the factor analysis. Moreover, the determinants of the matrix correlations are low enough to be able to indicate intercorrelation among the variables introduced in the analysis. Finally, all Bartlett’s sphericity tests were significant. This fact excludes the possibility to have correlation matrixes similar to the identity matrix among the variables.

  4. 4.

    Labour union membership as a promoter of protest activities is compatible with the construct. Moreover, its weight in the second factor is very low.

References

  • Abramson PR, Aldrich JH (1982) The decline of electoral participation in America. Am Polit Sci Rev 76(3):502–521

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ajzen I (2001) Nature and operation of attitudes. Annu Rev Psychol 52(1):27–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ajzen I, Fishbein M (2000) Attitudes and the attitude-behavior relation: reasoned and automatic processes. Eur Rev Soc Psychol 11(1):1–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Almond G, Verba S (1963) The civic culture: political attitudes and democracy in five countries. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Anduiza E, Cantijoch M, Colombo C, Gallego A, Salcedo J (2010) Los usos políticos de Internet en España. Revista española de investigaciones Sociológicas 129(1):133–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes SH, Kaase M, Allerbeck KR (1979) Political action: mass participation in five Western democracies. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Best SJ, Krueger BS (2005) Analyzing the representativeness of internet political participation. Polit Behav 27(2):183–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bimber B, Flanagin AJ, Stohl C (2005) Reconceptualizing collective action in the contemporary media environment. Commun Theory 15(4):365–388

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonet E, Martín I, Montero JRG (2006) Las actitudes políticas de los españoles. In: Montero JRG, Font J, Torcal Loriente ME (eds) Ciudadanos, asociaciones y participación en España. Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, Madrid, pp 105–132

    Google Scholar 

  • Borge R, Cardenal AS (2011) Surfing the net: a pathway to participation for the politically uninterested? Policy Internet 3(1)

    Google Scholar 

  • Boulianne S (2009) Does Internet use affect engagement? A meta-analysis of research. Polit Commun 26(2):193–211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown T (2006) Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. The Guilford Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Browne M (1968) A comparison of factor analytic techniques. Psychometrika 33:267–334

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Castells M (2010) The rise of the network society: the information age: economy, society, and culture. Wiley-Blackwell, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) (2007) Study 2736: Internet y Participación Política. http://www.cis.es/cis/opencm/ES/1_encuestas/estudios/ver.jsp?estudio=8760&cuestionario=10114&muestra=15545. Accessed 05 Oct 2011

  • Citrin J, Muste C (1999) Trust in government. Measures of political attitudes. In: Robinson J, Phillip S, Wrightsman L (eds) Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes. Academic, San Diego, CA, pp 465–532

    Google Scholar 

  • Cliff N (1988) The eigenvalues-greater-than-one rule and the reliability of components. Psychol Bull 103:276–279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen A, Vigoda E, Samorly A (2001) Analysis of the mediating effect of personal-psychological variables on the relationship between socioeconomic status and political participation: a structural equations framework. Polit Psychol 22(4):727–757

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conover PJ, Searing DD, Crewe IM (2002) The deliberative potential of political discussion. Br J Polit Sci 32(1):21–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crano WD (1997) Vested interest, symbolic politics, and attitude-behavior consistency. J Personal Soc Psychol 72(3):485–491

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dalton RJ (2008) Citizenship norms and the expansion of political participation. Polit Stud 56(1):76–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Zúñiga HG, Veenstra A, Vraga E, Wang M, DeShano C, Perlmutter D, Shah D (2007) Online and offline activism: communication mediation and political messaging among blog readers. Annual Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Denters B, Gabriel O, Torcal M (2007) Norms of good citizenship. In: van Deth JW, Montero JRG, Westholm A (eds) Citizenship and involvement in European democracies: a comparative analysis. Routledge, New York, pp 88–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Dimaggio P, Hargittai E, Neuman RW, Robinson JP (2001) Social implications of the Internet. Annu Rev Sociol 27:307–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farrell H, Drezner D (2008) The power and politics of blogs. Public Choice 134(1):15–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrer M, Medina L, Torcal M (2006) La participación política: factores explicativos. In: Montero JR, Font J, Torcal M (eds) Ciudadanos, asociaciones y participación en España. Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, Madrid

    Google Scholar 

  • Finney S, DiStefano C (2006) Non-normal and categorical data in structural equation modeling. In: Hancock GR, Mueller RO (eds) A second course in structural equation modeling. Information Age, Greenwich, CT, pp 269–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Fishbein M, Ajzen I (1975) Belief, attitude, intention and behavior. Addison-Wesley, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Freese J, Rivas S, Hargittai E (2006) Cognitive ability and Internet use among older adults. Poetics 34(4–5):236–249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibson RK, Lusoli W, Ward S (2005) Online participation in the UK: testing a ‘contextualised’ model of internet effects. Br J Polit Int Relat 7(4):561–583

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gil de Zúñiga H, Veenstra A, Vraga E, Shah D (2010) Digital democracy: reimagining pathways to political participation. J Inf Technol Polit 7(1):36–51

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goss E, Phillips J (2002) How information technology affects wages: evidence using internet usage as a proxy for IT skills. J Lab Res 23(3):463–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gurstein M (2003) Effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. First Monday 8(12)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hagen M (2000) Digital democracy and political systems. In: Hacker K, Van Dijk J (eds) Digital democracy: issues of theory and practice. Sage, London, pp 54–69

    Google Scholar 

  • Hargittai E (2010) Digital Na(t)ives? Variation in Internet skills and uses among members of the “net generation”. Sociol Inq 80(1):92–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hargittai E, Walejko G (2008) The participation divide: content creation and sharing in the digital age. Inf Commun Soc 11(2):239–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hassani SN (2006) Locating digital divides at home, work, and everywhere else. Poetics 34(4–5):250–272

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoff J (2008) Virtual capital? Internet competence and political participation in Denmark. MedieKultur J Media Commun Res 40:83–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Howard PEN, Rainie L, Jones S (2001) Days and nights on the Internet. Am Behav Sci 45(3):383–404

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen MJ, Danziger JN, Venkatesh A (2007) Civil society and cyber society: the role of the Internet in community associations and democratic politics. Inf Soc Int J 23(1):39–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Krueger BS (2002) Assessing the potential of Internet political participation in the United States. Am Polit Res 30(5):476–498

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kymlicka W, Norman W (2000) Citizenship in culturally diverse societies: issues, contexts, concepts. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Lane R (1959) Political life. Why and how the people get involved in politics. Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Laraña E, Johnston H, Gusfield JR (1994) New social movements: from ideology to identity. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawley DN, Maxwell AE (1962) Factor analysis as a statistical method. Statistician 12:209–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis-Beck MS (1994) Factor analysis and related techniques. Sage, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Lijphart A (1997) Unequal participation: democracy’s unresolved dilemma. Am Polit Sci Rev 91(1):1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Linn RL (1968) A Monte Carlo approach to the number of factor problem. Psychometrika 33:37–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Livingstone S, Helsper E (2007) Gradations in digital inclusion: children, young people and the digital divide. New Media Soc 9(4):671–696

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Margolis M, Moreno-Riaño G (2009) The prospect of Internet democracy. Ashgate Publishing, Burlington, VT

    Google Scholar 

  • Martínez Arias M, Hernandez-Lloreda M, Hernandez-Lloreda M (2006) Psicometría. Alianza Editorial, Madrid

    Google Scholar 

  • Meijer AJ, Burger N, Ebbers W (2009) Citizens4Citizens: mapping participatory practices on the Internet. Electron J E Gov 7(1):99–112

    Google Scholar 

  • Micheletti M (2003) Political virtue and shopping: individuals, consumerism, and collective action. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Milbrath L (1977) Political participation: how and why do people get involved in politics. Rand McNally, Chicago, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Min SJ (2010) From the digital divide to the democratic divide: Internet skills, political interest, and the second-level digital divide in political internet use. J Inf Technol Polit 7:22–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montero JR, Zmerli S, Newton K (2008) Confianza social, confianza política y satisfacción con la democracia. Revista española de investigaciones Sociológicas 122(1):11–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moon MJ (2002) The evolution of e-government among municipalities: rhetoric or reality? Public Adm Rev 62(4):424–433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mutz DC (2005) Social trust and e-commerce. Public Opin Q 69(3):393–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nah S, Veenstra AS, Shah D (2006) The Internet and Anti-war activism: a case study of information, expression, and action. J Comput Mediat Commun 12(1):230–247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newton K, Norris P (2000) Confidence in public institutions. In: Parr SJ, Putnam RDE (eds) Disaffected democracies. What’s troubling the trilateral countries. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Niemi RG, Craig SC, Mattei F (1991) Measuring internal political efficacy in the 1988 national election study. Am Polit Sci Rev 85(4):1407–1413

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norris P (2001) Digital divide: civic engagement, information poverty, and the Internet worldwide. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Orum AM (1989) Introduction to political sociology: the social anatomy of the body politic. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Peter J, Valkenburg PM (2006) Adolescents’ internet use: testing the “disappearing digital divide” versus the “emerging digital differentiation” approach. Poetics 34(4–5):293–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pharr SJ, Putnam RD (2000) Disaffected democracies: what’s troubling the trilateral countries? Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Robles JM (2008) Ciudadanía digital: una introducción a un nuevo concepto de ciudadano. Editorial UOC, Barcelona

    Google Scholar 

  • Samejima F (1995) Acceleration model in the heterogeneous case of the general graded response model. Psychometrika 60(4):549–572

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Schlozman KL, Verba S, Brady HE (2010) Weapon of the strong? Participatory inequality and the Internet. Perspect Polit 8(2):487–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shah DV, Cho J, Eveland WP, Kwak N (2005) Information and expression in a digital age. Commun Res 32(5):531–565

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sniderman PM, Grob DB (1996) Innovations in experimental design in attitude surveys. Annu Rev Sociol 22:377–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stafford TF, Stafford RM, Schkade LL (2004) Determining uses and gratifications for the Internet. Decis Sci 35(2):259–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Subirats J (2002) Los dilemas de una relación inevitable. Innovación democrática y tecnologías de la información y de la comunicación. In: Cairo Carou H (ed) Democracia Digital. Límites y oportunidades. Trotta, Madrid, pp 89–111

    Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel H, Fraser C, Jaspars JMF (1984) The social dimension: European studies in social psychology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tilly C (1978) From mobilization to revolution. Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolbert CJ, McNeal RS (2003) Unraveling the effects of the Internet on political participation? Polit Res Q 56(2):175–185

    Google Scholar 

  • Udo GJ (2001) Privacy and security concerns as major barriers for e-commerce: a survey study. Inf Manag Comput Secur 9(4):165–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valencia JF (1990) La lógica de la acción colectiva: tres modelos de análisis de la participación política no institucional. Revista de psicología social 5(2):185–214

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Meer T, van Deth J, Scheepers P (2009) The politicized participant. Ideology and Political Action in 20 Democracies. Comp Polit Stud 42(11):1426–1457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Dijk J (2000) Models of democracy and concepts of communication. In: Hacker KL, van Dijk J (eds) Digital democracy: issues of theory and practice. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp 30–53

    Google Scholar 

  • van Dijk J (2006) Digital divide research, achievements and shortcomings. Poetics 34(4–5):221–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Dijk J, Pieterson W, van Deuren A, Ebbers W (2007) E-services for citizens: the Dutch usage case. In: Wimmer M, Scholl J, Grönlund Å (eds) Electronic government, vol 4656, Lecture notes in computer science. Springer, Berlin, pp 155–166

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Verba S, Nie NH (1972) Participation in America. Harper & Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Verba S, Nie NH, Kim J (1987) Participation and political equality: a seven-nation comparison. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Verba S, Schlozman K, Brady HE (1995) Voice and equality: civic voluntarism in American politics. Harvard University Press, Harvard

    Google Scholar 

  • Zammuner V (1998) Tecniche dell’intervista e del questionario. Il Mulino, Bologna

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Complutense University of Madrid, Campus de Somosaguas, Pozuelo de Alarcón, 28223, Madrid, Spain

    Stefano De Marco, Mirko Antino & José Manuel Robles Morales

Authors
  1. Stefano De Marco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mirko Antino
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. José Manuel Robles Morales
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefano De Marco .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Information Systems Laboratory, University of the Aegean, Lymperis Building, Karlovassi, Samos, 83200, Greece

    Yannis Charalabidis

  2. , Decision Support Systems Laboratory (DSS, National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Polytechneiou 9 Str., Athens, 15773, Greece

    Sotirios Koussouris

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

De Marco, S., Antino, M., Morales, J.M.R. (2012). Assessing a Measurement Model for Digital Political Participation: A Multidisciplinary Point of View. In: Charalabidis, Y., Koussouris, S. (eds) Empowering Open and Collaborative Governance. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27219-6_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27219-6_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27218-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27219-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation