Citation

Schoppa L. Comp. Polit. Stud. 2013; 46(9): 1058-1081.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0010414012463896

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

What drives differences across countries in levels of civic engagement? Both the United States and Japan have been described as having high levels of civic engagement, but a variety of measures show that the type of involvement that is most common varies. Americans join and contribute to national political groups, but membership in PTAs and volunteer firefighting units is low and declining. Japanese participate at a much lower level in national advocacy organizations, but they join local neighborhood associations at very high rates, participate extensively in PTAs, and volunteer to clean up neighborhood parks. This article seeks to unravel why Japanese have such high rates of local civic engagement by examining how parents and volunteers have mobilized to maintain high rates of walking to and from school during a period in which walk-to-school rates have plummeted in the United States. The higher rate of Japanese local engagement in this area, I argue, is motivated by housing markets that limit residential mobility to much lower levels than in the United States. High cost of residential "exit" in Japan drives citizens to exercise "voice" to maintain the safety and walkability of their neighborhoods.

Language: en