Part I: Introduction; 1: Political Equality as the Foundation of Democracy; The Equality Principle; Evidence of Changing Participation Patterns; The Sources of Inequality; Skills and Resources; Countervailing Factors; Contextual Factors; The Empirical Base of this Study; Plan of the Book; Conclusion; Endnotes; Part II: Individual-level Patterns; 2: Opening Political Doors; Modes of Democratic Participation; Measuring Participation; Levels of Political Activity; Conclusion; Endnotes; 3: For Richer or Poorer, Politically Speaking; Why is there Social Inequality in Participation?; Education and Participation; Income and Participation; Occupation and Participation; The Cumulative SES Effect; Reflections on the Basic SES Model; Endnotes; 4: Civil Society Mobilizing Action; The Logic of Group Mobilization; Participating in Civil Society; Linking Groups and Political Participation; The Interaction between Social Status and Group Mobilization; Implications for Participation; Endnotes; 5: Age, Generations, and Participation; Thinking about the Young, the Old, and Participation; Political Engagement across the Life Cycle; Political Interest; Political Action; An American Case Study; Multivariate Modeling; Multivariate Modeling of the ISSP; The Lessons for Participation; Endnotes; 6: Whatś a Good Citizen to Do?; The Norms of Citizenship; Measuring Citizenship Norms; Political Efficacy; Social Trust; Orientations and Participation; Political Efficacy; Interpersonal Trust; The Civic Voluntarism Model; Participation as a Cumulative Process; Endnotes; 7: The Special Case of Online Activism; The Development of Online Activism; The Pew Surveys; Offline and Online Activity; The Correlates of Action; The Lessons of Online Participation; Acknowledgments; Endnotes; Part III: Contextual Patterns; 8: Context and Inequality; The Varieties of Context; Constitutional Structures; Party and Electoral Systems; Societal Conditions; National Context and Participation; Predicting Participation Levels in a Nation; Predicting the Inequality of Participation; Citizens, Context, and Participation; Context and Inequality; Endnotes; 9: Is the Gap Widening?; Inequality over Time; Social-status Inequalities in Turnout; Voting in the United States; Voting Inequality Cross-nationally; Time Trends in Other Forms of Political Action; A Case Study: The United States; Cross-national Patterns of Change' Political Participation Then and Now; Endnotes

This volume examines the changing patterns of political participation over the past quarter of a century and the ways they have altered the relationship between citizens and their government. It documents the growing participation gap in contemporary democracies and proposes a variety of methods to narrow the gap.