What makes a person participate in the political system? Psychological Needs and Political Behavior exams the problems of why, under what circumstances, and with what consequences citizens take part in politics. It provides a systematic theory of the linkage between basic human needs and political behavior.
            The major theme of the book is that the motivation to participate in politics originates in the need for personal control. According to Renshon, each person has within him a basic need to gain control over his physical and psychological life space. When the individual’s life space includes the political system, then the link is forged between a need for personal control and its outplay in political life. Renshon not only proposes a motivational need based on this particular need, but goes on to detail the ways in which this need is structured by the social environment.
            This book traces the development of the need for personal control. Beginning with its psychological origin in childhood socialization experiences, it follows the political implications in the individual’s selection of later political behaviors. Renshon studies the need motivation to participate, the political action selected, and the degree of satisfaction obtained in the actual arena of political activities.
            Of interest to both political scientists and psychologists Psychological Needs and Political Behavior makes a creative breakthrough toward explaining politics in terms of basic human motivations.