Tocqueville did not write about soccer clubs: Participation in voluntary associations and political involvement

Abstract

Inspired by Robert Putnam and referring to Alexis de Tocqueville, many political sociologists have in recent decades focused on expectations of positive effects of participation in voluntary associations on political involvement. However, the literature and analyses of new data sources suggest a very fragile empirical basis for these expectations: Statistical relationships are weak and the causality is disputable. Present-day leisure clubs might not be the civic organisations that Tocqueville wrote about, and present-day citizens might have other sources of drivers for political involvement.