Transcript POLITICAL PARTICIPATION - Sunny Hills High School

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
The American Electorate
Framers of the Constitution were unable to
reach a compromise on voter eligibility
Left to states to decide
15th Amendment – voting rights for
African-American men
States pass laws to deny suffrage
19th Amendment – 1920 – Women’s
Suffrage
Voting Rights Act of 1965 – suspended all
literacy tests
26th Amendment 1971 – suffrage for 18 yr.
olds
Table 6.1: Two
Ways of
Calculating
Voter Turnout,
1996-2001
Elections,
Selected
Countries:
Voting Turnout*
Participation based on the
following Demographics
Education
income
Age
Ethnicity
Interest in politics
Regular Church goer
Figure 6.4: Voter Turnout in Presidential
Elections, by Age, Schooling, and Race, 19641996
Source: Updated from Gary R. Orren, "The Linkage of Policy to Participation," in Presidential
Selection, ed. Alexander Heard and Michael Nelson (Durham, N.C.: Duck University Press, 1987).
Data for 1996 are from Statistical Abstract of the United States 1998, 296, as supplied by
Christopher Blunt.
Why is Voter Turnout so Low?*
Institutional Obstacles
–Difficulty of Registration
–Difficulty of absentee voting
–Number of Elections
–Weak political parties
Other Possible Reasons
Voter Attitudes
Misleading – less fraud today
Figure 6.2: Voter Participation in
Presidential Elections, 1860-2000
Sources: For 1860-1928: Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial
Times to 1970, part 2, 1071; 1932-1944: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1992, 517; 19482000: Michael P. McDonald and Samuel L. Popkin, "The Myth of the Vanishing Voter," American
Political Science Review 95 (December 2001): table 1, 966.
Types of Political Participation
Voting
Writing to your representatives
Signing a petition
Campaigning
Running for office
Discussing politics
FORMS OF PARTICIPATION
According to Verba & Nie
INACTIVESVOTING SPECIALISTS
CAMPAIGNERS- vote & get involved in
campaigns
COMMUNALISTS-more nonpartisan than
campaigners’ – they devout their time to
community activities and local problems
PAROCHIAL PARTICIPANTS- they
don’t vote, but often contact local
politicians about specific, often
personal problems
COMPLETE ACTIVISTS- Participate
in all forms of politics
Journal
A program of universal citizen service has
been proposed to promote in increase in
political participation. It would enlist every
young American – male and female- in a
service corps for 1 to 2 years of either
military or nonmilitary training and service.
What do you think? Explain.
Table 6.2: Voter Registration in
the South