CiteULike is a free online bibliography manager. Register and you can start organising your references online.

Commitment and Detachment in Voluntary Associations Export

American Sociological Review, Vol. 46, No. 2. (1981), pp. 141-158.

Citation Format

[Posts]

View FullText article


jake's tags for this article

political_participation social_networks

X Reviews [Write a review of this article]

X Find related articles from these CiteULike users

X Find related articles with these CiteULike tags

X Posting History

X Abstract

Membership commitment to and detachment from voluntary associations is hypothesized to be affected by the degree to which the organization's political structure facilitates social control by members, in the sense of mutual self-regulation. Three components of the polity--decentralization, communication, and total influence--are analyzed for their impact on members of 32 noneconomic voluntary associations in Indianapolis. Using a contextual-effects model, communication and participation in decisions are found to increase commitment and to reduce detachment net of other organizational and individual factors. An interaction between communication and decision participation suggests that communication can compensate for lack of direct involvement in making decisions in strengthening member support for the collectivity.


X BibTeX record

X RIS record


Privacy Statement | Terms & Conditions
CiteULike organises scholarly (or academic) papers or literature and provides bibliographic (which means it makes bibliographies) for universities and higher education establishments. It helps undergraduates and postgraduates. People studying for PhDs or in postdoctoral (postdoc) positions. The service is similar in scope to EndNote or RefWorks or any other reference manager like BibTeX, but it is a social bookmarking service for scientists and humanities researchers.