Presentation by Eric Miller, Blinn College, Bryan, Texas.

Chapter 7Political Participation and Voting: Expressing the Popular Will

Walter Lippmann

We are concerned in public affairs, but

immersed in our private ones.

Voter Participation

• Essential component of the ideal of self-government

• Elections are a means by which… • People control the government• Government controls the people• Elections are the only form of

participation that involves a majority of citizens (in most countries)

Voter Participation

• Suffrage- right to vote, has expanded over time• White property owning males• 15th Amendment (1870)- ended race as a barrier• 19th Amendment (1920)- ended sex as a barrier• 24th Amendment (1964)- no poll-tax• 26th Amendment (1971)- ended age as a barrier• Disenfranchisement- literacy tests, citizen tests,

whites-only primary elections• Voting Rights Act of 1965

• “Motor Voter Law” 1993• Linked voter registration to vehicle registration• Made it easier to register to vote

Voter Participation

• Factors in Voter Turnout: The United States in Comparative Perspective• Registration Requirements

• Places a burden on the individual• Voter ID Laws- disenfranchisement?

• Voter ID cards serve to depress voter turnout• Georgia photo ID/voter identification card law

• Federal judge struck down monetary requirement• Supreme Court upheld Indiana voter ID card

requirement

Should Voters be Required to Carry a Government-Issued Photo ID?

• Pro:• Voting fraud is widespread and detrimental• All citizens will be assisted in getting IDs

• Con:• Poor, elderly, and minorities will be disenfranchised• Little documentation of voter fraud

Voter Participation

• Factors in Voter Turnout: The United States in Comparative Perspective• Frequency of Elections

• Elections at many levels of government frequent and staggered• State and local hold elections in off-years to insulate their

races from possible effects of presidential campaigns• Primary Elections

• Reduces voter turnout• Increases amount of personal effort needed to participate• Americans asked to vote two or three times as often as

Europeans• Party Differences

• No sharp differences between major parties• Overlapping policies

Voter Participation

• Why Some Americans Vote and Others Do Not• Civic Attitudes

• Civic Duty• regular voters have a strong sense of civic duty

• Apathy• People just don’t care enough to vote

• Alienation• People feel powerless

• Age• Younger people vote the least• Older people vote the most

• Education• More education = more likely to participate

• Income• Political participation is dominated by the middle-

class • Hispanic and African Americans have had a

relatively low turnout for POTUS elections

• Voter turnout for men and women are somewhat similar• Education level and income are bigger factors in participation

Voter Turnout and Levelof Income, 2008

Voter Turnout in PresidentialElections, 1960-2008

Voter Participation

• The Impact of the Vote• Elections do not normally produce a “mandate”

• Prospective Voting• Based on knowledge of candidates’ positions

• Retrospective Voting• Based on past performance

• Economic conditions usually play a factor, with some consideration of foreign policy issues

Voter Participation

• Presidential elections draw the most voters

• Presidential debates• Nixon-Kennedy- 60% of households w/ TV• Audiences have declined significantly since

1960 • Americans get most of their news from

TV• Passive participation• People who follow the news are generally

more informed about politics than those who do not• “the Fox anomaly”

• Older people follow the news more closely than younger people

America’s Major News Sources

Conventional Forms of Participation Other Than Voting

• Campaign Activities• Lobbying Group Activities• Following Politics in the Media• Virtual Participation

• Political campaigns and citizen mobilization• Democratizing effects but also political

polarization• Community Activities

• Decline in social capital?• The sum of face-to-face interactions among

citizens in a society

Online Campaign Activities

Campaign Activity

Unconventional Activism: Social Movements and Protest Politics

• Social movements- a broad effort to achieve change• A way for those who are dissatisfied with gov. to get its

attention• More dramatic than conventional means• Politically weak can force gov. to be more responsive

• Protests go back to the Boston Tea Party.• Protests are often calculated acts usually involving

younger citizens rather than older ones• Political protests more planned today than in the past

• Protest movements seldom gain broad public support.• Political protests less common today, and low public

support for protesters• But protests are often tolerated.

Protest Activity

Participation and the Potential for Influence

• Most citizens take little interest in participation, except for voting

• Class bias: public versus private• Political = public (i.e. voting)• Economic = private (i.e. health insurance)

• Low participation rates of lower-income people

• Participation rates parallel private influence

• Americans are less likely to vote than Europeans but more likely to donate money or time to promote community causes and work in political campaigns

States in the Nation