1. Participation

2. What are all of the ways you can participate in politics?

3. Participation, PS 125 Registered to vote82% Voted in an election44% Worn a campaign button24% Put a campaign sticker on your car8% Go to any political meeting, rally, speech38% Give money to a candidate6% Give money to a party or other political group4% Tried to persuade someone to vote for a party or candidate68%

4. Why is participation important?

5. Why don’t some people participate?

6. Probability of voting = Benefit - Cost

7. Rational calculations? (Would you give up the right to vote forever for…?) An IPOD Touch2% Free college tuition40% A million dollars44%

8. Voter Turnout, 2004 Election

9. What makes a person more likely to vote? Higher Education Why? More interest in politics (higher benefit) More background information to understand politics, and skills to get through the registration and voting process (lower costs)

10. Level of information, PS 125 Do you happen to know what job or political office is now held by Nancy Pelosi?72% Whose responsibility is it to determine if a law is Constitutional or not: the president, the Congress, or the Supreme Court?92% Do you happen to know which party has the most members in the House of Representatives?66%

11. Effect of education on turnout

12. What makes a person more likely to vote? Higher Education Higher Income Why? Free time (lower costs) Stake in community (taxes etc.—higher benefit)

13. Effect of income on turnout

14. Effect of race on turnout?

15. What makes a person more likely to vote? Higher Education Higher Income / more resources Lack of language/cultural barriers

16. Effect of citizenship on turnout

17. What makes a person more likely to vote? Higher Education Higher Income / more resources Lack of language/cultural barriers Easy registration

18. Effect of Registration laws on turnout

19. So why don’t young people vote?

20. Newspaper readership

21. Newspaper readership, by age

22. What makes a person more likely to vote? Higher Education Higher Income / more resources Lack of language/cultural barriers Easy registration Interest Social Connectedness

23. What makes a person more likely to vote? Social connectedness Why? Learn civic skills in a group (lower costs) Feel responsibility to a particular community (higher benefit) Group norms (higher social benefit)

24. Effect of marriage on turnout

25. Effect of residency on turnout

26. Effect of home ownership on turnout

27. What is social capital? The norms and trust that develop from interpersonal social relationships A byproduct of other activities, not something created on its own

28. Putnam’s evidence for declining social capital Membership in PTA, League of Women Voters, Elks Clubs and the like have declined 25-50% in the last 25 years. Bowling leagues and sports leagues have less participation People spend up to 25% less time socializing with friends than they did in 1965. Church attendance is down 15-30%. Attending Club Meetings down 58% Family dinners down 33% Having friends over down 45%

29. Why the decline of social capital?

31. What are ways we can build social capital?

32. What does a healthy democracy really need? Which do you think has a bigger potential affect on the health of democracy, having an informed citizenry, or having close-knit communities? Do you think the system will be biased against people who don’t participate? So who might the system be biased against? Does that make for a healthy democracy?