Participation and Social Network: Participation and Relational Resource with Influential People in Korea and Japan.

The regional conflict and the inequality are important problems in post industrial democratic societies. Even in United States, the gap between "Red America" and "Blue America" has become large topics in national elections and informal social relations are important in society. The purpose of this study is to clarify the association between human relationships with influential people (relational resource) and participation behaviors by statistical analysis of survey data in Korea and Japan. There are some differences about participation behaviors and relational resources between Korea and Japan, and there are also differences between urban and rural areas in each countries. Korean people participate in many activities more than Japanese. Japanese have many informal relations with influential people than Korean. In rural area relatively many people have relational resources. This phenomenon is the result of large social changes in Korea and Japan. About the results of logistic regressions, relational resources related with the participations in both countries. Hypothesis of relational resource is supported. There are some other variables related with participations. Authoritarian attitude, political efficacy, and preference of redistribution policy have effects to participations. The mechanisms of participations are different between residential areas in Korea and Japan. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]