Author(s) Sejin Koo Keywords party activist, linkage mechanism, motivation, third-wave democracy, South Korea, Mongolia Abstract Party activists are important for building party–voter links. This study focuses on the motivations of these activists and the hypothesis that economic factors are associated with more programmatic and policy-driven platforms. I examine a novel comparative survey data set of party activists collected in multiple districts in South Korea and Mongolia to determine whether national economic development, the local economy, or individual income shapes activist motivations. The results challenge the economic account and, instead, shed light on the importance of party characteristics, such as size, ideology, and whether a party has its roots in authoritarianism. Author(s) Bio Sejin Koo is Assistant Professor of political science at Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan. Koo earned an M.A. in political science from Seoul National University and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, College Station. Her research interests include political parties, citizen participation, and quantitative methods. Her recent work on member activism in Korean parties is forthcoming in Party Politics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jea.2018.20.