Search results

Political activity is a telling behavior about a generation, influencing how policy makers in the U.S. do their jobs and how budgets are set. A generation without any political activity risks missing out on benefits from activity, while an active generation may help shape the institutions and traditions in a political culture. There are significant challenges to measuring individual political activity, and the question isn't simply "how politically active are you?" A tool traditionally used to address this challenge is a seven- point scale based on the correlation between an individual's party identification and political activism. This measurement allows polltakers to label themselves as strong or weak for either major party, independent leaning Republican/Democrat or truly independent. For a deeper look, scholars can gauge political activism by examining a number of sub-levels of activism, rather than relying simply on a seven-point scale. Social identity has become an important way to measure levels of partisanship and interest amongst the citizenry.

Political activity is a telling behavior about a generation, influencing how policy makers in the U.S. do their jobs and how budgets are set. A generation without any political activity risks missing out on benefits from activity, while an active generation may help shape the institutions and traditions in a political culture. There are significant challenges to measuring individual political activity, and the question isn't simply "how politically active are you?" A tool traditionally used to address this challenge is a seven- point scale based on the correlation between an individual's party identification and political activism. This measurement allows polltakers to label themselves as strong or weak for either major party, independent leaning Republican/Democrat or truly independent. For a deeper look, scholars can gauge political activism by examining a number of sub-levels of activism, rather than relying simply on a seven-point scale. Social identity has become an important way to measure levels of partisanship and interest amongst the citizenry.

AbstractThe authors examine the characteristics and factors shaping political activism in Serbia. Their analysis is based on a national representative sample (N = 2,211). Their research findings show that in general, Serbian citizens are more inclined to pursue certain unconventional or newer forms of political activism such as ethical and political consumption and petition-signing than older forms of political participation. Certain traditional political activities are still practised, such as membership of political parties and making direct contact with politicians, while newer ones like occupation of public spaces and protest activities are relatively rare. The analyses demonstrate that participation in both traditional and newer forms of politics becomes more likely as resources available to individuals increase, both economic and educational. Traditional forms of political participation tend to be increasingly preferred as people become older, while the unconventional forms are more popular among the younger generation.

This article examines protest, petitioning, lawsuits, open letters, blogging, and other forms of activism by Chinese veterans. Moving beyond images of heroic soldiers in the official media, and the near absence of reporting on veterans' problems, we draw mainly on blog posts and military websites where veterans share their experiences of post-army life. We find that, overall, veterans have had difficulty adjusting to the economic, social, cultural, and political changes of the reform era, with many of them finding themselves left behind as other groups have leapt ahead. Veterans complain about poverty, unresolved medical problems, and lack of respect for their contributions to the nation. Not a few have experienced terrible indignities at the hands of security officials and a leadership that is bent on preventing any interest group formation that might ameliorate veterans' problems.

This article investigates how players of digital games apply their own play with the intent to transmit political messages to other players. Acts of activism are collected from a sample of commercial multiplayer online games; three taxonomies are proposed of which one is used to present the findings, and popular patterns or structures of activism are identified. It is found that in-game activism often takes its cue from activism in everyday life, but that some original topics emerge, for example, the ownership of virtual worlds and practices of in-game political activism such as novel forms of rallies. Current political activism often appears to utilize generic and widely-shared game mechanics, rather than mechanics specific to individual games or genres. Games are therefore selected for their topics, availability, and costs, and popularity with the target audience.