political participation and voting. copyright © houghton mifflin company. all rights reserved.7 | 2...

Political Participation and

Voting

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 7 | 2

Democracy and Political Participation

• Political participation: the actions of private citizens seeking to influence or support government and politics

– Conventional participation: relatively routine behavior that uses institutional channels and is acceptable to the dominant culture

– Unconventional participation: relatively uncommon political behavior that challenges or defies established institutions and dominant norms


Unconventional Participation

• Unconventional participation is stressful and occasionally violent

• Support for Unconventional Participation

– U.S. has a long history of unconventional participation beginning with the Boston Tea Party

– Americans tend to disapprove of unconventional participation

– Americans strongly disapprove of unconventional participation that disrupts daily life



• The Effectiveness of Unconventional Participation

– Unconventional participation has been successful

• Vietnam-era activism

• Civil rights activism

– Direct action: involves assembling crowds to confront businesses and local governments to demand a hearing



• Unconventional participation appeals to people who:

– Distrust the political system

– Have a strong sense of political efficacy

– Have a highly developed sense of group consciousness

• Unconventional Participation in America and the World

– Americans are about as likely to take direct action in politics as citizens of European democracies


What Americans Think is Unconventional Political Behavior


Conventional Participation

• A test of the democratic nature of any government is whether citizens can affect its policies by acting through institutions.

• If people must operate outside governmental institutions to influence policymaking, the system is not democratic



• The objective of democratic institutions is to make political participation conventional—to allow ordinary citizens to engage in relatively routine, non-threatening behavior to get the government to heed their opinions, interests and needs

• Supportive behaviors: action that expresses allegiance to government and country



• Influencing behaviors: behaviors that seek to modify or reverse government policy to serve political interests

– Influencing behaviors may be used to secure particular benefits

• Approaching government to serve one’s particular interests is consistent with democratic theory

• “Contacting behavior” may not necessarily be related to other forms of participation such as voting,

• Particularized participation is more common among higher SES citizens

• Particularized participation may serve private interests to the detriment of the majority

• Citizens demand more of local government



• Influencing behaviors

– Influencing behaviors may be used to influence broad policy objectives

• May be activities that influence selection of government personnel and policies

• May or may not be associated with electoral process

• May be low or high initiative



• May involve the courts through the class action suit: a legal action brought by a person or group on behalf of a number of people in similar circumstances

• Conventional Participation in America

– Voting turnout: the percentage of eligible voters who actually vote in a given election

– Americans vote at lower rates that people in other democracies

– Americans engage in other forms of participation at the same, or higher rates, than people in other democracies…with high and low levels of initiative


Participating Through Voting

• Most common form of political behavior in democracies: voting for candidates

• Expansion of Suffrage in the United States

– Enfranchisement of Blacks

– Enfranchisement of women

– Enfranchisement of younger voters (ages 18-20)


Voter Registration in theSouth, 1960, 1980, and 2000


Participation Through Voting

– Progressivism: a philosophy of political reform based upon the goodness and wisdom of the individual citizen

– Progressives championed: • The direct primary: a preliminary election, run by the state

governments, in which the voters choose the party’s candidates for the general election

• The recall: an election to remove officials from elective office

• The referendum: allowed a direct vote by the people on either a proposed law or an amendment to a state constitution.

• The initiative: is a procedure by which voters can propose an issue to be decided by the legislature or by the people in a referendum; requires gathering a specified number of signatures and submitting a petition to a designated agency


Participation Through Voting

• Voting for Candidates– Allows citizens to choose who best serves their interests

– Only two officeholders chosen nationally; most electing done on local level


Explaining Political Participation

• Patterns of participation actually show little variation over time in the percentage of citizens who worked for candidates or attended party meetings

– Interest in election campaigns and persuading people how to vote have actually tended to increase.

– But voter turnout has declined over time.

– The major issue is not turnout, but registration (those who are registered vote at higher rates than those who are eligible)


Political Participation

• Apathy is not the only cause of nonregistration – Apathy lack of interest in or concern for things that others

find moving or exciting


Political Participation

• Apathy is not the only cause of nonregistration• a) Registration has costs in the U.S.• b) Motor-voter law of 1993 took effect in 1995



• The standard socioeconomic model: a relationship between socioeconomic status and conventional political involvement; people with higher status and more education are more likely to participate than those with lower status

– Education is the strongest factor in explaining most types of political participation


Effects of Education on Political Participation



• Low Voter Turnout

• The Decline in Voting Over Time

– 26th Amendment expanded the electorate by lowering the voting age to 18

• But young people are the least likely to vote

• Probably accounts for 1-2% of the decline in voter turnout

– Decreasing faith in the effectiveness of voting



• U.S. Turnout vs. Turnout in Other Countries

– Turnout is low because of voting laws and administrative machinery

• Election day is not a public holiday

• Burden of registration is on the voter

– Lack of political parties to mobilize particular social groups

– Learning about the scores of candidates on the ballot is daunting

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