686 Sociológia 46, 2014, No. 6 Power and Influence-Based Political Participation in European Democracies Matej Makarovič 1 – Mateja Rek 2 School of Advanced Social Studies Faculty of Media Power and Influence-Based Political Participation in European Democracies. In this article, we analyse issues related to political participation from the perspective of sociological theory. The key argument is based on a theoretical framework distinguishing clearly between power and influence. We employ Talcott Parsons' theory of steering media and use it as a base on which to build a classification of forms of political participation. We show that with the development of a society, power-based political participation is not being replaced by influence-based political participation. Instead, in developed societies, the number of active citizens increases, and they tend to use more of both power-based and influence-based forms of political participation. Based on our classification of the forms of political participation, we examine a set of quantitative indicators using a hierarchical cluster analysis in order to explore differences and similarities among EU members as regards the use of power or influence-based forms of political participation. Sociológia 2014, Vol. 46 (No. 6: 686-705) Key words: political participation; democracy; Europe; influence; power Introduction Recently, quite a few mass protests, gatherings and uprisings demanding social and political change took place in new EU member states. Some common denominations of these protests are: discontent with the political system and functioning of democracy; general distrust in institutions and the rule of law; distrust in politics, government, political parties; as well as general indignation at the high levels of corruption. All this accumulated discontent rooted in the context of a deep economic crisis and painful reflections and insights into many mistakes and injustices that have occurred in the period of transition or to say, post-socialist period. In Slovenia, massive protests directed against the political elite reached its peak during the winter 2012 – 2013. Key ideas and slogans were often presented in a universalistic manner and they referred to entire political elite in a very simplistic sense of “all politicians and political institutions being bad”. A necessity to replace the whole political elite as well as change thoroughly the political system was expressed loudly. Among the visions for a better society and requirements for change, it was common to hear proposals and initiatives for a greater participation of people in decision- 1 Address: assoc. prof. dr. Matej Makarovič, School of Advanced Social Studies, Gregorčičeva 19, 5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia. E- mail: matej.makarovic@fuds.si 2 Address: assoc. prof. dr. Mateja Rek, Faculty of Media, Leskoškova 9d, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. E-mail: teja.rek@fame.si