Explaining Political Activism in Southern Brazil Engagement in Political and Nonpolitical Organizations, Education, Motivation, and the Role of the State

As the Brazilian public demands more active, direct citizen participation in the policy-making process, more and more new social movements and protest groups emerge. At the same time, Brazilian state political institutions and corporatist structures play a central role in structuring opportunities f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of sociology Vol. 41; no. 2; pp. 74 - 93
Main Authors Côrtes, Soraya Vargas, Silva, Marcelo Kunrath, de Lourdes Drachler, Maria
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 01.07.2011
M. E. Sharpe
Subjects
Democracy
Formal education
Labor unions
Political activism
Political clubs
Political organizations
Political parties
Political protests
Political sociology
Professional associations
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Summary:As the Brazilian public demands more active, direct citizen participation in the policy-making process, more and more new social movements and protest groups emerge. At the same time, Brazilian state political institutions and corporatist structures play a central role in structuring opportunities for civic engagement and activism. Our main argument, rooted in the Brazilian context, is the following: Spurred by state and corporatist structures in Brazilian political life, engagement in organizations of all types-political and nonpolitical-positively affects chances of engaging in political activism in metropolitan southern Brazil. In this context, we also examine the independent influences of education, motivation (interest in politics), gender, and age (the youth generation) on political activism. To address our research concern, we use data from the Brazilian Metropolitan Observatory Survey, carried out in 2006-7 in São Paulo and Porto Alegre (n = 1,536). Considering the strong role of the state, we find that engagement in political organizations has a greater impact on political activism than engagement in nonpolitical organizations.
ISSN:0020-7659
1557-9336
DOI:10.2753/IJS0020-7659410204