unconventional participation and inevitably leads to more accurate
categorization. However, this framework still presents the same problem as the
simple, dualist perspective, enforcing strict bounds within which participation
must fall. In doing this, the framework excludes many forms of participation and
obscures the truth of political participation.
To more effectively capture the complexities of political participation we need to
move beyond viewing the conventional-unconventional distinction as a strictly
dichotomous, but rather view forms of participation on a spectrum, ranging from
conventional to unconventional. To view participation on a spectrum, clear
definitions for conventional and unconventional participation need to be
established. Despite their shortcomings, the six dualities presented in Kaim’s
framework have some merit and can be utilised for this purpose. This report will
focus on two of these dualities: legal-illegal and institutionalised-non-
institutionalised, to define conventional and unconventional participation. This
is done for two reasons. Firstly, this report will only investigate political
participation in four case studies. Utilising all six dualities would result in too
much variation between the case studies and make comparison significantly
more challenging. Secondly, categorising conventional participation as
institutionalised and legal, and unconventional participation as non-
institutionalized and illegal is a viewpoint commonly shared across the literature
base. Stockemer asserts that unconventional political participation “aims to
influence politics through non-institutionalized means” (2014, p.4). This view is
shared by Marien et al, who argue that “participants in non-institutionalised
forms of political participation keep some distance from the political system”
(2010, p.3), whereas participants in conventional participation “become ‘part of
the political system’”. Kaim states that conventional participation is legal “as it
functions according to the rules of conduct written in the form of state law”
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