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Abstract
Community Leadership Development is believed to be instrumental in the development of community capitals and the strengthening of a community's ability to solve its social problems. By arming local residents with leadership skills, knowledge about the community's social and economic conditions, and opportunities to develop their social networks, community leadership programs are expected to produce alumni who are highly involved in their communities, participate in decision making, and otherwise become involved in community governance. This research examines the participatory behavior of leadership program alumni throughout the state of Georgia. Using responses to closed- and open-ended survey items, individual participation is operationalized in four different ways in order to examine the range of participatory behaviors. The research also presents a model of "pathways to participation", positing that individuals with a strong orientation toward some aspect of civic life will demonstrate increased participatory behaviors. The research also employs hypotheses that consider individual skill development, community knowledge, social networking, motivated capability, and altruism as potential predictors of participatory behavior. Using OLS and probit estimation, the research finds that various forms of participation have different predictors, and that networking and motivated capability were the strongest and most consistent predictors of participatory behavior. Considering the results of the study, this research sets out implications for future theoretical development and leadership programs, as well as implications for practitioners with respect to participation on the individual level, response to populist movements, and enhancing democratic governance.