Using the Civic Voluntarism Model to Compare the Political Participation of US and Swiss Social Workers

Abstract

Various international and national social work ethical principles call social workers to participate in politics, although not all social workers in the USA and Switzerland embrace politics in their professional practice. A growing body of social work literature addresses social workers' participation in politics. This article presents a comparative study of political participation, political efficacy, and political ideology among social workers in the USA and Switzerland. This study used two separate cross-sectional surveys to better understand the political participation, political efficacy, and political ideology of social workers in the USA (n = 3033) and Switzerland (n = 1242). The results indicate that US social workers are more politically active and have a higher internal sense of political efficacy than Swiss social workers. Regarding political ideology, the Swiss participants position themselves more clearly on the left wing than their US colleagues. As one of few international practice comparison pieces, this article aims to further stimulate research on political activity of social workers. For this purpose, starting points are by further developing the political efficacy of social workers and further educating social workers during and after social work education about engaging in justice-related activities to better society and the lives of their clients.