Determinants of online political participation in Croatia

Abstract

In this paper we study variables associated with online political participation in Croatia from two perspectives. First, we explain past online political participation using variables implied as important by sociological and political research literatures. Among them are sociodemographic characteristics, political values, past participation in offline political activities, and Internet usage variables. While all these factors were substantially correlated with the past online political participation, political values and past offline political participation were its most important determinants. Second, we study the propensity for future online political participation using an extended version of Ajzen's theory of planned behavior. The determinants of online political participation within this model are attitude toward participating, internalized social pressure, perceived behavioral control, and moral obligation. Three variables - attitudes, internalized social pressure, and moral obligation - contributed almost equally to the predictive power of the model, covering almost a 50% share of variance in the propensity for online political participation. By including past online political participation, the predictive power was further increased to a 65% share of explained variance. A number of open questions remain, pointing to several avenues for future research.