This paper investigates whether substantively distinct moral worldviews can help explain why certain people engage in different types of civic actions.

Abstract

This paper investigates whether substantively distinct moral worldviews can help explain why certain people engage in different types of civic actions. Based on an analysis of survey data from a nationally representative sample of American adults, we find that, controlling for other important factors, a moral worldview emphasizing civic responsibility is more likely to encourage volunteer efforts that benefit the larger community than is one emphasizing personal fulfillment. Furthermore, we also find that a worldview emphasizing religious duty is less likely to promote involvement in civic activity that helps those in the larger community relative to a worldview emphasizing civic responsibility. But a religious worldview increases the probability of in-group volunteering relative to an individualist worldview. The implications of these findings for the broader scholarship on civic engagement and social capital and the role of culture in action are discussed.

Scholars have long been interested in understanding why certain people but not others participate in civic action.Research on this question tendsto focus on factorssuch as organizations, social networks, leadership skills, and biographical availability to distinguish civic activists from non-activists (for example, see Beyerlein and Hipp, 2006b; McAdam, 1986; Passy, 2001; Verba et al., 1995). Although there are some exceptions, culture has generally taken a backseat in research on differential participation. We believe there is much to be gained from bringing culture to bear on the question of individual variation in civic action. In this article, we evaluate the role that distinct cultural worldviews play in explaining involvement in different types of civic engagement.

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