Modeling Social Media Effects on Non-Electoral Participation in Morocco

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the indirect effects of social media among Moroccan citizens on non-electoral participation using the wave V data of the Arab barometer. The wave V of this data was obtained in 2019-2018 by surveying 2400 Moroccan citizens. Using the SEM, the results of testing the hypotheses indicate that, first of all, social media has a direct and significant positive effect on poor government performance and corruption perception among citizens. Second, the results point out that social media indirectly and significantly increases political distrust among individuals through poor government performance and corruption perception. Finally, the results show that political distrust significantly increases non-electoral participation. Thus, given the significance of all relationships in the research model, it can be argued that social media has significantly increased non-electoral participation among citizens.