Individualized Collective Action

Traditionally political scientists have conceived of political participation as oriented toward the political sphere, particularly the political system, and involving people who join together in various kinds of groups to make claims on government. Real-life examples as well as empirical and theoretical studies in the social sciences show that it is high time for us to rethink this view of political participation. We need to consider arenas other than the political system as the target of political participation, other methods for political participation than those traditionally used in attitudinal studies, and problematize our view that political participation is group-oriented behavior. My paper introduces and develops the concept of individualized collective action to summarize this new approach to political participation. It distinguishes between individualized collective action and our more common notion of political participation, here called collectivist collective action. The paper includes examples of what I believe are new forms of political participation as well as a short overview of how the processes of globalization, governance, postmodernization, individualization are encouraging more individualized collective action. It discusses briefly the role of other spheres (the market, the home and neighborhood, global civil society) as arenas for political participation. Finally, it penetrates the implications of individualized collective action for our thinking on democracy.