Political Participation
- # Public Participation in a Democracy
- ## Popular Sovereignty
- rule of the people
- higher voter turnout increases legitimacy of the public policymaking process
- # Conventional and Unconventional Forms of Political Participation
- **conventional** form of political participation
- an activity that occurs within the political system, upholding political institutions and democratic principles
- Examples: Writing letters to political representatives, donating money to political candidates or interest groups, attending campaign rallies and fundraisers all fall under the category of conventional participation
- Unconventional forms of political participation
- exist in the American political system and in other countries
- Examples: Violence, bribery, and extortion
- # The Paradox of Voting
- the cost-benefit calculation that people process prior to taking time out of their days to stand in line at the ballot box.
- a [[Collective action]] problem
- # Cost of Voting
- [[Amendment XXIV]] outlawed poll taxes
- ## Voter Registration
- registration process varies between states
- individuals must re-register when moving to a different state
- ## Informed Voting
- prospective voters ideally should gather information about the election in which they plan to vote
- often individuals abstain from voting because they claim they are not informed fully about the candidates and measures on the ballot
- Political party cues help simplify choices for voters
- these labels sometimes fail to function as useful tools to navigate the political environment
- # Reducing the Costs of Voting
- [[The National Voter Registration Act]] of 1993 (i.e. the[[ Motor Voter Law]]) allowed individuals to register to vote when applying for a driver license or other official form of documentation at the Department of Motor Vehicles
- ## Voting Technology
- The [[Help America Vote Act]] of 2002 attempted to replace outdated forms of technology that confused voters and presented potential problems when officials counted votes prior to announcing electoral victories
- ## Early Voting
- Some states attempted to reduce the long waits at the polls by offering voters the option to cast their vote early or by mail
- # The Benefits of Voting
- ## Civic Duty
- Scholars point to voting as a means by which people can feel as if they performed a civic duty
- ## Purpose
- The public understands their purpose in the American political system, and voting allows them to serve this purpose.
- # Participation Beyond Voting
- ## Low-Cost Activities
- Writing letters, calling, texting, or emailing a political representative do not possess excessive financial costs, yet these activities are costly in terms of the time it takes to complete them and the information needed to send an educated message.
- ## Political Meetings and Interest Groups
- Attending meetings also serve as costly activities
- all meetings require a person to incur transportation and temporal costs to participate
- require a baseline level of political knowledge to facilitate understanding
- provide a person with a sense of belonging and an efficient ability to advocate for issues and causes of perceived importance.
- ## Exclusive Groups
- some events and causes require people to spend large sums of money, which serves as a cost that discourages participation for many segments of the American public
- appeals to high income voters
- # Trends in Voter Turnout
- [[Voter turnout]] refers to the proportion of eligible voters who vote in an election
- ## Voter Turnout Rates
- have fluctuated over time
- Throughout much of the 20th century, turnout rates declined as political parties lost the ability to oversee the electoral process. The shift to candidate-centered elections as opposed to party-centered elections increased the information costs of voting for eligible voters
- In recent elections, especially the 2020 presidential election, voter turnout rates increased. Increased voter mobilization efforts facilitated these higher participation rates
- increasingly competitive elections piqued the public’s interest in politics, as close elections increase the perceived probability of a vote influencing the outcome of the race
- ## Political Participation among Social Groups
- Some social groups have faced historical barriers to the ballot box, while others incur more costs in the current political environment
- cost-benefit calculation is not the same for every voter in the political system
- # Historical Barriers to the Ballot Box
- #suffrage, or the right to vote, was restricted for much of the United States’ history.
- Many social groups experienced disenfranchisement, the deprivation of the right to vote, until the modern era.
- Constitutional amendments expanded suffrage, yet voter turnout continues to vary by social group membership.
- # Political Participation and Socioeconomic Status
- socioeconomic status functions as a strong predictor of political participation
- Political scientists who study social class measure this concept by assessing an individual’s [[socioeconomic status]], which combines information about their annual income, their occupation, and their highest level of education they completed.
- Individuals higher in socioeconomic status are more likely to participate in politics than individual with lower levels of socioeconomic status
- some forms of political participation require monetary costs along with temporal costs
- individuals who earn higher annual incomes are more likely to incur these costs than individuals from lower income brackets
- the upper echelon of education levels are twice as likely to vote as individuals who have obtained the lowest education levels
- education correlates with income levels, so highly educated voters may be able to incur the temporal and monetary costs involved in additional forms of political participation.
- education also correlates with occupation, the final component of socioeconomic status. Thus, the highly educated are more likely to work in fields that allow them to take the time to turn out to vote.
- # Political Participation and Other Social Groups
- ## Age
- Young people vote at lower rates than their older counterparts.
- ## Race, region, and gender
- Black Americans turnout at the highest rates
- the Hispanic/Latino population has the lowest rates of voter turnout
- The South has the lowest regional turnout in the United States
- A gender gap in turnout existed previously, but now men and women turnout at about the same rate
- # Political Participation at Home and Abroad
- The United States continues to turnout at lower rates than other countries
- Some scholars point to the shift to candidate-centered elections from party-centered elections as the reason behind this trend
- others observe that the high frequency of elections in the United States contributes to voter fatigue
- voters in the United States do, however, engage in additional forms of political participation like political donations and participating in campaign activities more frequently than voters in other countries.