Brendan McCaffrie

Beyond Mainstream Approaches to Political Participation: A Response to Aaron Martin

Aaron Martins (2012) recent article is the first to use survey data to compare the political participation of young people with that of older age groups in Australia. As such, it adds to our empirical knowledge of political participation, particularly by emphasising the changing focus of young peoples engagement. Yet, like most mainstream, and especially quantitative, political participation researchers, Martin does not engage adequately with the growing, more critical literature). This response raises some of the issues emphasised in this literature, relating them directly to Martins contribution. It has four sections: firstly, a brief consideration of Martins main conclusions; secondly, a discussion of putative reasons for the change in forms of participation; thirdly, a consideration of broader forms of political participation; and finally, a consideration of the relationship between identity and political participation, which is at the core of most broader discussions of the latter. 阿隆·马丁（2012）在最近的文章中首先使用调查资料对澳大利亚年轻人和更年长者的政治参与做了比较。他的研究，特别是关于年轻人参与焦点的转移那部分，丰富了关于政治参与的实证知识。但与从事政治参与的主流尤其是定量研究的学者一样，马丁对于正在出现的、批判性的文献缺乏足够的关注。本文根据这些文献提出跟马丁研究相关的问题。本文包括四个部分：1）简要评述马丁的主要结论；2）讨论参与形式变化的推定原因；3）思考更为宽广的政治参与形式；4）思考身份与政治参与之间的关系，那是在更大范围内讨论政治参与的核心问题。

A contextual framework for assessing reconstructive prime ministerial success

This article develops a framework for assessing political leadership success by comparing leaders in similar historical contexts. It finds that Nichols and Myerss three tasks of reconstruction can be used to assess the relative success of reconstructive prime ministers, but that the tasks are more complex than their original conception acknowledges. Examination of three reconstructive Australian prime ministers shows that the relationship between skill and context is intricate. Different skills and leadership styles are suited to different contexts but are also suited to different aspects of the shared context. Reconstructive leaders must also pay sufficient attention to tasks that are beyond their natural strengths.

A Crisis of Participation

Concerns over declining levels of political participation in the UK, particularly in traditional activities such as voting and political party membership, have led many to argue that political apathy is increasing and that democracy is at risk (Putnam 2000, Macedo et al. 2005). Reading this literature one could assert that there is a general crisis of political participation. This chapter questions this interpretation and argues that the mainstream participation literature only provides a partial account of trends in political participation because it operates with a narrow understanding of politics. While there has certainly been a decline, both in the UK and other mature, liberal democracies, in traditional forms of participation, which might be characterised as producing a crisis of participation, at the same time there has been a rise of new forms of political participation that operate outside of the established formal arenas. Consequently, this chapter argues that the decline in traditional forms of participation must be located within a broader understanding of the rise of alternative forms. Additionally, it is critical of the mainstream literature’s rather simplistic account of decline and crisis, arguing instead, first, that there is a growing crisis in engagement, resulting from an uncoupling between citizens and the state and, second, that this has important implications for state/citizen relations, which need to be addressed in order to strengthen democracy.