La participation associative en France : une analyse longitudinale

In conjunction with research on the not-for-profit sector, there has been a distinct revival of interest in the study of participation in membership organizations among economists and ? more generally ? social scientists in recent years. While many studies have focused on the determinants of participation, the dynamics of membership over time has not attracted the same attention. Are memberships long-lasting or, on the contrary, subject to strong mobility ? We seek to document this issue by using longitudinal data from the French Europanel for the period 1994-2001. Our study underscores the size of flows into and out of membership organizations. Of the respondents reporting membership during the period, only a minority maintained continuous membership. However, this unquestionably high mobility does not preclude an inertia effect in membership behavior. Indeed, the estimation of dynamic models with a discrete dependent variable shows the existence of a state-dependence phenomenon. This is expressed by a strong correlation of present participation with earlier participation.