What is Political Participation Good For? Theoretical Debate and Empirical Data from Austria

In democratic societies, citizens’ participation is of crucial importance. But in today’s western European societies, the willingness to participate politically seems to decline. As a consequence, political parties try to re-mobilise citizens. In this context, also theoretical discussions and ideological struggles have become stronger in the last decades. This article tries to shed light on the different theoretical aspects of participation and suggests to enlarge the categories of conventional and unconventional participation by a new categorization in direct and indirect political participation on the one hand and system-maintaining and system- critical participation on the other hand. In political theory and in the public debate, there are two opposing concepts on what participation is good for. One strand highlights a civil society that articulates political interest and is system-critical; the other focuses on system- maintaining participation and on a common good. The article tries to shed light on these theoretical considerations by discussing the case of Austria, a state with a high level of conventional participation and an on-going demographic change.