Mechanisms of influence of political group membership on political participation: A serial multiple mediation analysis in Ecuador

Abstract

This research explores the attitudinal and cognitive mediators of the relationship between political group membership and different modes of offline political participation. Specifically, this paper examines the mediating role of political interest, political knowledge, internal political efficacy, and subjective norms. For comparative purposes, the analysis considers membership in two types of political groups: political parties and social movements. The empirical study was based on a sample of 824 adults from Quito-Ecuador. The data were analyzed using serial multiple mediator models. The results indicate that: a) party membership mainly favors conventional participation, while belonging to social movements mobilizes protest participation more strongly. b) for the two types of membership, the hypothesized mediators were significant, explaining mostly the relationship with conventional participation; and c) political interest acts as the most relevant mediator. The final section discusses the findings of the study, including implications, limitations and recommendations for future research.