1. 7: Political Participation
Activating the Popular Will

2. Voter Participation
Political participation: involvement in activities intended to influence public policy and leadership
Suffrage: the right to vote
States initially limited suffrage
Only white men who owned property could vote
By the 1840s most property restrictions had been removed

3. Voter Participation (2)
Franchise was progressively expanded
African American men: Fifteenth Amendment (1870)
Black voting suppressed with intimidation, literacy tests, etc.
Last legal barriers to voting were removed in the 1960s
Women: Nineteenth Amendment (1920)
Young adults: Twenty-Sixth Amendment (1971)
Lowered the voting age from 21 to 18

4. Figure 7-1 Mississippi Voter Registration (1950s)
Through intimidation, poll taxes, and rigged literacy tests, the state of Mississippi kept all but a small number of its black residents from registering to vote.
Source: Estimated by the author from multiple sources.

5. Figure 7-2 Voter Turnout for Selected Countries
The United States ranks near the bottom among the world’s democracies in terms of the percentage of its eligible citizens who vote. Percentages here are rounded averages of recent national elections.
Source: Developed by the author from multiple sources.

6. Factors in Voter Turnout: The United States in Comparative Perspective
Voter turnout: proportion who vote
Roughly 60 percent in presidential elections
Below 50 percent for midterm congressional elections
Registration: putting one’s name on the official list of eligible voters
Historically, implemented to eliminate multiple voting
Voter turnout correlates to the ease of registration
Federal government tried to help with the Motor Voter law
New barriers to voting: voter ID cards
Discourages voter turnout
Some state laws have been struck down; others upheld

7. Factors in Voter Turnout: The United States in Comparative Perspective (2)
Frequency of elections is another burden on voters
Numerous off-cycle elections at state and local levels
Direct primary voting adds to election congestion
Americans are asked to vote two or three times as often as Europeans

8. Why Some Americans Vote and Others Do Not
Education and income: college-educated and upper-income Americans have above average voting rates
Age: young adults are substantially less likely to vote
Civic attitudes
Apathy: a lack of interest in politics
Alienation: a feeling of powerlessness rooted in the belief that government ignores one’s interests
Civic duty: a sense that one ought to participate
Political interest and party identification: party identifiers turn out at a higher rate

9. The Effect of Voter Turnout
Americans who identify with the Republicans have increasingly called themselves conservatives whereas those who identify with the Democratic Party have increasingly labeled themselves as liberals. One significance of this trend is that conservatives and liberals are more likely than moderates to vote.
Source: Pew Research Center poll, 2014.

10. Conventional Forms of Participation Other Than Voting
Voting is the most widespread form of political participation
Limited form in that citizens have the opportunity only at a particular time and only for the choices on the ballot
Other forms of participation include campaigning and lobbying, “virtual” participation, and community activities

11. Campaign and Lobbying Activities
Campaign participation rates are substantially higher in the United States than in Europe
American campaign season is longer
Federal system has more elections
Americans are more likely to support the activities of political groups
Monetary contributions
Contacting lawmakers
Participation in multiple groups

12. Virtual Participation
Political participation on the Internet may not be face-to-face, but much of it involves contact with friends, acquaintances, and activists
Especially, through social media
Peaks during presidential campaigns
Internet fundraising is also flourishing
Many groups have built extensive online organizations
Online activists and grassroots lobbying

13. Community Activities
Social capital: face-to-face interactions between people that contribute to a sense of community and foster civic cooperation
Americans’ community involvement is substantially higher than Europeans’
Larger role of organized religion is one component
Opportunities to get involved in local government are also more numerous
Chief obstacle to participation is motivation
Roughly 25 percent of American adults participate in community activities annually

14. Groups: “A Nation of Joiners”
“A nation of joiners” is how Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville described the United States during his writing tour of this country in the 1830s. Even today, Americans are more fully involved in groups than are Europeans.
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Source: World Values Survey Association, 2012.

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Volunteer Activity
The rate of volunteering varies considerably within the United States. Utah has the highest volunteer rate: 46 percent of its residents 16 years of age or older are engaged yearly in community volunteer work. Louisiana, at 17 percent, ranks lowest.
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Source: Corporation for National and Community Service, 2016.

16. Unconventional Activism: Social Movements and Protest Politics
Protest was common in the predemocratic era
Political movements, or social movements, are a way for citizens disenchanted with government policy to actively express their opposition
These movements take place largely outside established political institutions
Civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s
Today: Black Lives Matter
Political movements often fail to achieve their goals

17. The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street Protest Movements
Tea Party came to the public’s attention on April 15, 2009, in opposition to high taxes
Large majority of protestors were Republican, and Tea Party became a strong force within the Republican Party
Ultimately played a key role in the Republican takeover of the House in 2010
Unwillingness to compromise contributed to deadlock and legislative turmoil
Movement’s public support has declined

18. The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street Protest Movements (2)
Like the Tea Party, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement started with anger at established interests
Emerged in 2011
Began as a protest against a bailout of the financial industry and the government’s failure to hold bankers accountable
Has seen its popular support decline because of the public’s unease with protesters confronting police
OWS’s target was private wealth and it aimed to curb the political influence of large political donors

19. Figure 7-3 Support for Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street
The Tea Party attracted stronger support among Republicans while Occupy Wall Street was backed more fully by Democrats.
Source: Pew Research Center polls, February 2010 (Tea Party) and December 2011 (Occupy Wall Street).

20. The Next Political Movements?
Presidential campaign of 2016 was unique in part because of the rise of two anti-establishment politicians
Independent Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary
Republican Donald Trump, the eventual party nominee and 45th president of the United States
Political movements grow out of unaddressed issues
Trump and Sanders campaigns may both represent an indictment of the ruling elites in the U.S.

21. The Public’s Response to Protest Activity
Political protests have a long history in America
Americans are, however, less likely to protest than citizens in other Western democracies
Public support for protest activity is relatively low

22. Participation and the Potential for Influence
Emphasis on individualism in American culture diminishes political participation
Lower-income Americans are least likely to vote or participate politically
Lack of resources and lower education levels are factors
Participation reflects one’s socioeconomic level
Pattern of political influence in the U.S. parallels the distribution of economic influence

23. Figure 7-4 Voter Registration and Income Level
Americans of lower income are much less likely to vote than those of higher income. Fifty-three percent of those with incomes in the lowest 20% are registered to vote, whereas 84% of those with incomes in the highest 20% are registered.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2014.

24. Critical Thinking How do alienation, apathy, and civic duty differ?
Compare voting rates in the United States with those in Europe. Why are they lower in the United States? Then compare community participation rates in the United States with those in Europe. Why are they higher in the United States?
Why does economic status—differences in Americans’ education and income levels—make such a large difference in their level of political participation? Why does it make a larger difference in the United States than in Europe?

25. Long image descriptions
Appendix A

26. Groups: “A Nation of Joiners” Appendix
Where in the U.S., 18% of the population belong to no groups, in Germany that proportion is 33%; in Great Britain, 46%; in Italy, 49%; and in France, 61% belong to no groups.
Where in the U.S. 63% of the population belong to 1–3 groups, in Germany that proportion is 60%; in Great Britain, 45%; in Italy, 40%; and in France, 35%.
Where in the U.S. 19% of the population belong to 4 or more groups, in Germany that proportion is 7%; in Great Britain, 9%; in Italy, as little as 1%; and in France, just 4% belong to 4 or more groups.
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27. Volunteer Activity Appendix
The states in which 35% or more of the adult population engage in volunteering include Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
26% to 34.9% of the adult population engage in volunteering in the District of Columbia and the states of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.
The states in which less than 26% of the adult population engage in volunteering include California, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
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