Resumen de The relationship between political participation and life satisfaction: causal and contextual analysis
Is there a relationship between political participation and individual life satisfaction? The idea that political participation makes people more satisfied with their lives has long been debated. However, the existing empirical research has not been very successful in demonstrating that such a relationship exists while some studies show that instead it is individual life satisfaction that impacts political participation. This dissertation focuses on the issue of causality between political participation and individual life satisfaction. The first three articles are dedicated to assert whether there is a causal relationship between political participation and life satisfaction. Using panel data, no evidence of such a relationship was found. Given these results, this dissertation then moves to question if the connection between political participation and life satisfaction is conditioned by the political context and type of political participation. Using cross-sectional data, it was shown that there is an effect of political participation on life satisfaction, contingent to the type of participation act and conditioned at the higher level by the openness of the political system.
