Voluntary Association Membership in Fifteen Countries: A Comparative Analysis

We test the hypothesis, dating from the work of Weber and Tocqueville, that Americans are more likely to become involved in voluntary associations than people of other nations. Compared to previous work, we employ more recent data and consider more countries. We also examine several different measur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American sociological review 1992-04, Vol.57 (2), p.139-152
Main Authors: Curtis, James E., Grabb, Edward G., Baer, Douglas E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Associations
Behavior
Church unions
Churches
Communities
Comparative analysis
Comparative studies
Comparative Study
Control variables
Countries
Crosscultural Analysis
Democracy
Industrial Societies
Logistic regression
Marital status
Membership
National characteristics, American
Organizations
Religion
Social integration. Social relations. Social participation
Social organization. Social system. Social structure
Social research
Social sciences
Social values
Sociology
Voluntary associations
Voluntary Associations (membership)
Voluntary organizations
Volunteers
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Summary:We test the hypothesis, dating from the work of Weber and Tocqueville, that Americans are more likely to become involved in voluntary associations than people of other nations. Compared to previous work, we employ more recent data and consider more countries. We also examine several different measures of membership levels: all memberships versus working memberships as well as membership including and excluding church or union memberships. Cross-national differences are examined before and after controls for education, employment status, size of community, gender, marital status, and age. Results show Americans at or near the top on most measures of membership, although this ranking drops significantly when church membership is excluded and drops even further when only working memberships are examined. In these instances, people from several countries, including Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, and Sweden, equal or surpass the membership levels of Americans, especially when controls are introduced. Some alternative interpretations of the cross-national differences in voluntary association activity are considered.
ISSN:0003-1224
1939-8271
DOI:10.2307/2096201