A Facilitator of Civic Engagement in Online Group Contexts---The Role of Group Dimensions of Efficacy in Online Political Communities in the Presidential Elections of the United States and South Korea (2007--2008)---

Based on data from web surveys of Obama supporters and Moon supporters in online political communities during the presidential election of the United States and South Korea (2007-2008), this research investigates the psychosocial mechanisms that can explain changes in participatory orientation. In an attempt to clarify the mechanisms that explain the increase of political participation, this study introduces a new non-material resource for civic engagement: group dimensions of efficacy. This new concept represents a kind of group experience in which one perceives that one meets someone else who feels what he or she feels, and that one becomes a part of a collective force in public realms with other participants as a result of that meaningful encounter with other human beings. It is hypothesized that those with lower degree of participatory resources for political participation, including political efficacy, become more active in political participation as the participatory experiences in their online groups foster their group dimensions of efficacy. This consequently results in the increase of offline participation and of their general self-efficacy regarding politics itself, as well as of spectator involvement. This research provides political sociology with new evidence on how Internet communication can influence political participation and politics in general via collective dimensions of feeling of empowerment, and helps revise the existing model of civic voluntarism.