Advocacy beyond America: How to Find Persuadable Policy Audiences Abroad

The U-shape of political engagement along the ideological spectrum — meaning people are more activated on the conservative and liberal extremes and less so in the middle — has been well-documented in the United States. This pattern also shows up in voting and political activism, making it key to understanding why political parties play to their bases, especially during U.S. primaries. We see this phenomenon in our recently released tracker on U.S. adults’ interest in politics, and even more clearly if we take a point-in-time read across the political spectrum: U.S. adults who are either very conservative or very liberal are the most likely to describe themselves as being interested in politics. 

Beyond the U-curve: strategy signals across democracies

But what about other advanced democracies? Does the same pattern of higher interest in politics at the extremes of the left-right spectrum play out elsewhere? By looking at four other countries — Canada, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom — where we survey on political issues daily, we can see that the ideological views of those interested in politics show some key differences. Namely, rather than a U, in half of these markets we see a pattern that’s more like a child’s drawing of a bird, or a V with downturned tips. Those in the middle of the ideological spectrum show the least interest in politics; interest then rises quickly as political views become more extreme, and finally dips slightly among those with the most extreme ideological views. 

In these markets, we also ask respondents if they are politically active, which we define as donating, volunteering, or working on policy issues or political campaigns. The jump from being interested in current affairs and politics to actively participating in the political process is a big one. In general, about a third as many people who describe themselves as regularly following news about policy topics, social issues, or political campaigns say they are politically active. This can be seen by comparing across the left and right panels of each chart below. The patterns we see in political activity also differ from those we see for political interest: We generally see something closer to the traditional U or V shape we would expect to play out in political activism. But there is nuance. In Japan, the left wing of the ideological spectrum is more activated, while in Germany it is the right wing that is more so. 

Looking at these metrics over time would allow political strategists to understand whether they are leading or trailing indicators of voting behavior in a given country.

Where on the political spectrum interest translates into action

It is also interesting to see where interest is and is not translating into activism. In Japan, those furthest to the right more often claim to be informed about politics than those on the left, but when it comes to saying they are active in politics, those on the left report higher levels of involvement. It is also worth noting that in the other markets, somewhere between 60-75% of adults say they are informed about politics, whereas in Japan only 51% say so. But Japanese adults are politically active at rates only a bit lower than those in Germany, suggesting Japanese adults’ interest in politics is more directly translating into action. 

Certain behaviors predict political action

Unsurprisingly, being very informed about politics makes one much more likely to be politically involved, but research in political science indicates that other attitudes and behaviors also matter. Our data confirms that a personal sense of agency, as well as a sense of community and altruism, are highly predictive of political activity. There is a strong overlap between political activity and a sense of community and altruism in particular, with the same five psychographic attributes differentiating the general population from the politically active in our data. 

Understanding the pipeline from political interest to political action

For those involved in advocacy and political campaigning, understanding what takes people from interest to action is key. One data point to support advocacy efforts is looking at the traditional and/or social media diet of those merely interested in politics versus those who are active in politics, relative to the general population. In Germany, for example, most media outlets have similar viewership among the German public when compared with those who are particularly interested in political news but not currently politically active. Bild, for example, is a right-of-center tabloid that is only slightly more popular among those interested in political news than among the general public. And the share of self-proclaimed political wonks who follow it is only 6 percentage points higher. For left-leaning Die Tageszeitung, in contrast, the share of adults who specifically follow political news but are not politically active is 5 points higher compared with the general public, with the gap rising to 8 points among those who also say they are political wonks. 

One way to look at this is that on the German left, there are more people who are interested in — but not active in — politics consuming these news sources. And while that means there is more room to convert them into activists, it also suggests that it’s proven harder to do so thus far. Looking back at Germany’s political spectrum breakout, we can see this is indeed the case: The German left and right are almost equally interested in politics, but those on the far right are more likely to take direct political action. A similar process could look at specific online sources or creators to see which ones have an audience ripe for activation.

Practical avenues for mobilizing the almost-active

For advocacy professionals and government affairs teams, these contours aren’t academic — they are a map of where marginal effort turns into measurable leverage. If political engagement in your market looks more like a bird than a U curve, targeting the furthest ideological fringes may deliver diminishing returns. By contrast, the real prize is the “interested but inactive” cohorts clustered just shy of the poles — audiences that, as in Germany’s left-leaning media ecosystem, congregate in identifiable channels but haven’t yet crossed the activation threshold. But the gaps between interest and action highlight that building low-friction on-ramps (i.e. clear asks, community scaffolding, visible wins) can matter more than piling on awareness. On this front, psychographic triggers offer levers for creative mobilization: Organizations must design programs that confer agency, embed social belonging, and couple advocacy with pro-social action.