Chapter Seven

Political Participation: Activating the Popular Will

Major Concepts

  1. political participation
  2. suffrage
  1. voter turnout
  2. registration
  3. apathy
  4. civic duty
  5. alienation
  6. social capital
  7. social (political) movements

Lecture Outline

The focus of this chapter is on political participation and its various forms. The author highlights voting as the most common form of political activity, examining the impact of registration, civic duty, party competition, socioeconomic status, and other important factors on voter turnout. Differences in the extent of political participation are examined, and the effects of both individual and systemic factors are analyzed.

The 2008 Democratic primary contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton attracted voters, especially young ones, in numbers not seen since the 1970s.

I. Voter Participation

Suffrage—the right to vote—was largely restricted to white males for much of American history. African American males were granted the right to vote in 1870 with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, though effective barriers precluded many from fully exercising this right until the 1960s. Women were not guaranteed the right to vote in federal elections until 1920 with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Although voting laws are less restrictive today, voter turnout in the United States is lower than other democracies. This pattern is due to a variety of systemic factors.

·  Americans must personally register to vote, which puts an added burden on would-be voters, thus contributing to lower turnout rates. The motor voter law increased registration but not turnout.

·  Americans are asked to vote with a frequency that is unmatched anywhere else in the Western world, which reduces the willingness to vote.

·  Another reason for low voter turnout is that many Americans see little difference between the two major political parties. Perceived similarities between the parties makes voting seem largely irrelevant. The absence of a major labor or socialist party in the U.S. system appears to undermine the political consciousness and participation of Americans with low income and education.

Some Americans do vote more regularly than others.

·  American political culture is marked by a fairly widespread belief in voting as a civic duty and a means to influence government. In recent years, there has been a decline in the predominance of this belief, and a corresponding decrease in the number of regular voters who regard voting as a civic responsibility.

·  Regular voters also tend to be more interested in government and politics. Apathy and alienation undermine voting desire.

·  Regular voters are generally older than non-voters. Younger Americans are much less likelier to vote than their older counterparts.

·  Regular voters tend to have a higher economic status. Barriers to voting such as personal registration are more likely to discourage participation by individuals of low income and education.

II. Conventional Forms of Participation Other Than Voting

There are other forms of political participation besides voting. Those which are within the bounds of accepted, normal, or expected citizen behavior are considered conventional. There is a distinct middle-class bias to conventional participation.

·  These forms include contributing money to campaigns, participating in community activities, lobbying public officials, and joining political organizations.

·  Even though U.S. voter turnout is less than in most European countries, the level of other forms of political participation, such as group involvement, is higher in the United States than in other democracies.

·  Candidates such as Barack Obama and Howard Dean and websites such as MoveOn have begun to tap the internet’s potential as a means of rallying citizens behind political causes and movements, though what impact the internet will ultimately have on political participation is a matter of debate.

III. Unconventional Activism: Social Movements and Protest Politics

·  Social or political movements are broad efforts by citizens to change policy whenever they feel that government has been unresponsive to their interests.

·  Forms of political participation in which citizens attack, disrupt, or confront the regular political process are termed as unconventional.

·  Americans tend to support conventional political activism (e.g., voting, contributing money to campaigns, and writing senators) over unconventional activism (e.g., pickets and marches). Despite the popular disapproval of unconventional behavior, such actions have sometimes had a definite impact on government officials, changing their agenda and policies.

IV. Participation and the Potential for Influence

The emphasis that the American culture places on individualism tends to discourage a sense of urgency about political participation. Americans tend not to view their material well-being as greatly dependent on collective political involvement.

·  Even though Americans are mainly concerned about personal matters, their votes can be quite significant.

·  Citizens can help to define the limits of public policies.

·  Less-affluent Americans may have different opinions compared to wealthier Americans, yet they tend to be a relatively weak force in the nation’s political system.

·  American politics has a definite middle-class slant, reflecting the higher participation rate of middle-class Americans, who, in general, tend to favor self-interested policies.

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