Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Grass- roots Associations and Local Political Participation in Mexico

这篇博士论文研究探讨了非政治性基层组织如何影响墨西哥贫困社区的政治参与模式。 研究人员假设，协会的内部特征，以及他们运作的地方背景下，有一个直接的联系，政治参与的模式。 研究人员在墨西哥选择了一个匹配的社区样本，并对不同的地方协会进行了编码，以了解他们鼓励开放决策的程度。 决策的开放性和封闭性与投票率、政党参与程度和参与程度的档案信息相关。 本研究假定非政治结社活动和政治参与之间的因果关系，这是很重要的理解在农村环境中的民主政治变革。

This doctoral dissertation research examines how non-political grass-roots organizations affect patterns of political participation in poor communities in Mexico. The researcher hypothesizes that the internal characteristics of the associations, as well as the local context within which they operate, has a direct linkage to patterns of political participation. The researcher has selected a matched sample of communities in Mexico and has coded different local associations for the degree to which they encourage open decision making. The openness and closedness of decision making is correlated with voting turnout, political party involvement and archival information about levels of participation. This study posits a causal linkage between non-political associational activity and political involvement that is important for understanding democratic political change in rural settings.