Schools or pools of democracy? A critical test of the causal effects of civic participation

The schools of democracy idea states that as a side effect of participation in voluntary associations, people acquire civic skills, subscribe to democratic values more strongly, develop political interest, and become more inclined to partake in political activities. In short, they become better citizens through interactions with their fellow members. Although this idea seems part of the “common knowledge” of political science, few studies have examined the causality of this relation. One important issue is selection effects, caused by factors such as education and personality, which may cause the schools of democracy thesis to be spurious. Another issue is the timing of the effect: How long does it take for the positive socialization effects to occur? Both of these issues will be analyzed in the current paper.