Youth Participation in 2004

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Youth Participation in 2004

• It has been true since 18 year olds were given
  the vote, that young people are less likely to
  vote than citizens of other age groups.

• Often turned off by politics or lacking a sense
  that their participation really matters, young
  people tend to stay away from the polls.

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• In 2004, different political groups attempted to
  leverage youth-oriented media and popular culture
  to mobilize the youth vote.
• Such groups included
• Rock the Vote
• Vote for Change
• Redeem the Vote

• Despite the ridicule leveled at the Vote or
  Die t-shirts of one of these groups and the
  common perception that these mobilization efforts
  failed, 18-24 year old voting actually increased
  11 percent from 2000 to 2004.

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Forms of Political Participation

• Democracy requires the active participation of
  citizens in their own governance.

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Forms of Participation

• Some forms of political participation are
  controlled by the government or otherwise bring
  citizens views into direct contact with
  political officials. These include
• Voting
• Contacting political officials
• Signing petitions

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• Some forms of political participation are more
  citizen controlled.
• Examples of such grassroots participation
  include
• Attending meetings
• Joining organizations
• Protesting
• Volunteering in campaigns

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Professional Participation

• Sometimes citizens participate in politics in
  professional ways
• Citizens lobby to persuade legislators to pass
  laws.
• They engage in public relations to influence the
  marketplace of ideas.
• They engage in litigation to obtain justice in a
  court of law.

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Possible Reasons for Low Turnout

• Americans simply dont care
• Not very satisfying cant convey specific
  information in a vote
• Institutional factors direct vs. proportional
  representation (only 2 parties), electoral
  college
• Election Day
• Registration
• Decaying social capital (bowling alone?)

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But wait! Why would someone vote in the first
place?

• Voting makes no sense
• Modern democracy is itself a collective good
  problem

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Some reasons people might vote anyway

• Civic virtue
• Demonstration effect
• Group membership
• Slight chance that it matters (if you are very
  very very lucky)
• Political efficacy (hubris? naiveté?)

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The Paradox of Voting in America

• Americans believe voting is important.
• They see it as
• A civic duty
• Key to maintaining popular control of government
• The very essence of democracy.

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• At the same time, Americans tend not to vote.
• Only 70 to 75 percent of the voting-age
  population is registered to vote
• About 50 percent vote in Presidential elections
• About 33 percent vote in midterm elections
• Even fewer vote in off-year, special, and primary
  elections.
• Americans vote less now than they have in the
  past.

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• Voter turnout levels in other democracies such
  as South Africa, Denmark, Israel, Germany,
  Mexico, Britain, Russia, France, and Canada range
  from 15 to 35 percent higher than turnout in
  American presidential elections.

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

• Why do you think voter turnout has declined in
  recent years?
• Why do you think Americans tend to vote less than
  citizens in other countries?
• Why do some people vote and others do not?

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Who votes?
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Explaining Political Participation

• Variation in levels of political participation
  among different groups of American citizens can
  be explained by social factors such as
• Socioeconomic status
• Civic engagement

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• Americans with higher levels of education,
  greater incomes, and high-prestige occupations
  are more likely than others to participate in the
  various forms of political participation.
• Indeed, although African Americans and Latinos
  are less likely to participate politically than
  whites, they participate at the same levels when
  one controls for socioeconomic status.

• socioeconomic status
• status in society based on level of education,
  income, and occupational prestige

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• civic engagement
• a sense of concern about public, social, and
  political life often expressed through
  participation in social and political
  organizations

• To the extent that citizens become engaged in
  civic life and active in their communities, they
  are more likely to participate in politics.
• Thus, social changes that deter such engagement
  (ranging from television viewing to increases in
  crime) hinder political participation.

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• Formal and legal obstacles to voting also
  depress turnout and political participation in
  the United States.
• For nearly a century after the ratification of
  the 15th Amendment, southern governments employed
  poll taxes, literacy tests, and white primaries
  to deprive African Americans of their suffrage
  right.

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• The 1965 Voting Rights Act (and later amendments
  to that act) removed many of the legal barriers
  to African American voting.
• Still, there remain important obstacles to voter
  participation in the United States which, though
  not insurmountable, make it more difficult for
  Americans to vote.

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• American voters in most states are required to
  register to vote well in advance of election day.
  
• This requirement, at one time a reform against
  voter fraud and political corruption, decreases
  voter turnout particularly among those with lower
  income and especially less education.

• In Europe, where governments typically register
  all eligible citizens automatically, turnout is
  much higher.

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• In addition, in many states, registered voters
  are purged from election lists for failing to
  vote in a given election or for other reasons.
• For all of our purported commitment to voting as
  a civic duty, these and other practices (like
  holding elections on Tuesdays when most people
  work) predictably depress political participation.

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• Perhaps strong party or other political
  organizations could help to overcome these
  impediments to political participation and
  voting.
• But American political parties tend to be weaker
  than their European counterparts and devote
  considerably less attention to voter mobilization
  than in past years.

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• Lacking strong parties to mobilize voters,
  mobilization relies on the efforts of interest
  groups, campaigns, and ideological movements.
• Still, these organizations often are just as
  likely to seek to depress the turnout of voters
  supporting their opponents as they are to
  increase the turnout their own voters.

• political mobilization
• the processes by which large numbers of people
  are organized for a political activity

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• One aspect of American exceptionalism is that
  Americans are exceptional in their non-voting.
• Inasmuch as political institutions and processes
  can counter-balance our political-cultural
  predispositions, it seems that our institutions
  and processes add extra impediments to a
  citizenry already predisposed not to vote.

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Why should low turnout concern us?

• Democratic Party concerns
• democratic (small d) concerns
• Citizen alienation
• Skewed agendas, class bias

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Why it might NOT concern us

• Reflects satisfaction
• Smaller government means less interest in what
  government does
• Competency concerns
• It doesnt matter to the outcome (?)

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What is to be done?
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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

• What reforms could we institute to encourage more
  voting?
• What are the potential costs of making it easier
  for people to vote by eliminating registration
  requirements and roll purging?
• Is it necessarily a bad thing that Americans
  dont vote? Might it say something good about
  American politics?