Competition and commitment in voluntary memberships: The paradox of persistence and participation

Much of the research on voluntary associations has argued that commitment to the group determines member participation and persistence. In this framework, highly committed members participate to a greater degree than less committed members, and maintain their connection with the group over longer periods of time. Less committed members, on the other hand, participate sporadically, and tend to drop their memberships easily. This commitment thesis implies a positive relationship between participation and persistence: the more the member participates, the longer the duration of membership. We argue that this individual level thesis should be supplanted by a system level understanding in which the competition among social groups for individual resources determines persistence and participation. This competition thesis predicts a negative relationship between persistence of membership and participation in group activities: the move the member participates, the shorter the average duration of membership. We use event history analysis to test these opposing hypotheses on a sample of 1587 membership spells covering a fifteen year time period. We find strong and consistent support for the competition thesis.