Motivations of Party Activists in Ukraine

Abstract

This paper aims to fill an important theoretical gap in the existing literature in the understanding of the motivations behind citizen participation in party activism. Party activism is especially intriguing in this era of party in decline. While scholars differentiate several distinct types of motivations in party participation, the context for motivation largely remains to be understudied. This paper contributes to scholarly literature by showing that region, age and official membership have a strong effect on citizen participation in party activism. Using new survey data collected through fieldwork in Ukraine, this study examines the motivations of party activists in Ukraine’s 2019 parliamentary elections. Previous scholarly works have shown the vital contributions of party activists, who help mediate between parties and voters (Scarrow 1996). Running for election does not merely necessitate the acquisition of resources through activities like fundraising, it also requires the help of party activists who serve as a liaison between the candidate, the party, and the electorate. This paper builds on scholarly studies, which show that political party activists are driven by various motivations (Kirkpatrick 1976; Costantini and Valenty 1996). I further contribute to the existing scholarship by showing that context, such as region, age and party membership, may significantly affect the level of party activism. The original survey data was collected in the three Ukrainian cities of Kiev (north/capital), Lviv (west), and Kharkiv (east), via a survey of 201 party activists representing such political parties as Servant of the People, Opposition Platform - For Life and European Solidarity. The survey was conducted over the course of two weeks from July 7 to July 19, right before the parliamentary elections took place on July 21, 2019. Since the subjects of this study are party ‘activists’ (not formal members with membership cards), it was crucial to conduct the survey when the party activists were visibly in action. Though the data collected and used in this research project is not representative of the whole country, this original survey dataset illustrates that party activists in the western regions of Ukraine are more ideologically (purposive) motivated than party activists in the eastern regions of Ukraine. Moreover, party activists’ age, income and official membership in parties demonstrated a strong relationship with activists’ level of purposiveness, as findings were statistically significant. In other words, older party activists and those with official membership cards in parties are more likely to be purposively motivated than younger and non-member activists. While gender and the highest degree of formal education exhibit certain variations in their relationship with activists’ level of purposiveness, the findings were statistically insignificant.