Does misery love company? Civic engagement in economic hard times

We examine how economic hardship affects civic engagement. Using the Roper Political and Social Trends data, we show that the unemployed were less civically engaged throughout the period covered in the data (1973–1994). The gap in civic engagement between the employed and the unemployed is stable throughout the period. We find little evidence that national economic recession affects the overall level of civic engagement. We do find that higher state unemployment is positively related to political participation for both employed and unemployed residents, especially for political partisans. Finally, we find a strong and negative relationship between state-level income inequality and civic engagement. Our findings suggest that in terms of civic engagement: (1) the state-level economic context matters more than the national context; (2) economic recession may affect political and non-political civic participation differently; (3) economic inequality, rather than economic hardship, appears more negatively to impact civic engagement.

► The unemployed report a lower level of civic participation between 1974 and 1994.
► Participation gap between the employed and unemployed is stable during the period.
► We find no evidence that economic recession affects the level of civic engagement.
► Higher state unemployment is related to increased political participation.
► State income inequality is negatively related with civic engagement.