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Americans pride themselves over living in a representative democracy, a republic in which citizens have an influence on the government. A representative democracy entails the differentiating views of all of its citizens being represented equally rather than a select few. Citizens are able to influence the government by electing representatives, they believe would foremost embody their beliefs. Voting in the United States has not invariably been a liberty granted to all citizens. Historically, white men of elite status were the sole citizens authorized vote--however--with the ratification with amendments such as: the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-Sixth, voting in the United States is more readily accessible to its citizens. Although countless American citizens are eligible to vote, a profuse amount do not participate in elections. Congressional elections face some of the lowest voter turnout rate. Seeing as the legislative branch of government is the closest to the public, Congress is more susceptible of being impacted by low voter …show more content…
Specifically through misrepresentation and government corruption, citizen’s input are not heard. Sean McElwee states in his article, “Why Voting Matters”, in the current state of the United States’s democracy, there are “far too many missing voices, particularly among those who are already less advantaged... by excluding so many eligible voters, our election systems do a very poor job of giving voice to the full diversity of viewpoints in our electorate”(McElwee, 2015, Turnout Gaps and Opinion Gaps, para. 1). The government’s purpose is to reinforce democracy through encouraging the population to express their diverging views through the electoral systems--not using them to hinder public participation. Steadily, representatives will no longer care for constituents and the voice of the public will die
Among the many ways Americans can participate in politics, voting is considered one of the most common and important ways for Americans to get involved. The outcome of any election, especially at the national level, determines who will be making and enforcing the laws that all Americans must abide by. With this in mind one might assume that all Americans are active voters, but studies show the voter turnout is actually astonishingly low. With this unsettling trend it is important to know what statistics say about voter turnout as was as the four major factors that influence participation: Socioeconomic status, education, political environment, and state electoral laws, in order to help boost turnout in future elections.
Austin Ranney does not dread that low voting is hurting American democracy. Arend Lijphart believes that democracy is meaningless without voting. The fact that to many people do not vote for Presidential or Congressional elections concerns him. With numbers like 49 and 55 percent of the eligible population voting on Presidential elections, Lijphart questions the actual democracy in America. Low voting turnouts is giving large groups more control over government ideals. Lijphart thinks the best way to solve this problem is to raise turnouts in a variety of ways. Things like weekend voting and easier ways of acquiring absentee ballots will increase the number of voters. Also, having multiple elect...
The United States of America is a republic, or representative democracy. Democracy, a word that comes to us from Greek, literally means the people rule (Romance, July 8). This broad definition leaves unanswered a few important details such as who are the people, how shall they rule, and what should they rule on (July 8). Defining the answers to those questions means defining a model for a democratic system. William E. Hudson defines four such models in his book American Democracy in Peril: the Protective, Developmental, Pluralist, and Participatory models of democracy (Hudson, 8-19). Of these models, perhaps Participatory comes closest to an ideal, pure democracy of rule by the people (16-19). In practice, however, establishing a stable ideal democracy is not entirely feasible. In a country the size of the United States, it quickly becomes unwieldy if not impossible to have direct rule by the people. To overcome this, the compromise of the representative system allows the people to choose who will rule on a regular basis. The political culture that defines American politics shows that despite this compromise, America is still very much a democratic society.
The "silent majority" of the American people is now accepted as the status quo, the way things always have been and will be. Voter turnout is now the litmus test for political participation. Non-voters are becoming rampant in our democracy, with voter turnout hovering around a low 60% for general elections. At this rate, a candidate would have to win over 80% of that 60% vote in order to have true majority support. Thus, inactivity in voting threatens the very legitimacy of our government. In the recent November 7, 2013 midterm election, a few counties reported a mere 4% of eligible voters actually participated, in some cases to vote for a policy referendum that would aff...
"After 1815 Americans transformed the republic of the Founding Fathers into a democracy. State after state revoked property qualifications for voting and holding officethus transforming Jefferson's republic of property holders into Andrew Jackson's mass democracy. Democracy, however, was not for everyone. While states extended political rights to all white men, they often withdrew or limited such rights for blacks. As part of the same trend, the state of New Jersey took the vote away from propertied women, who formerly had possessed that right. Thus the democratization of citizenship applied exclusively to white men. In the mid19th century, these men went to the polls in record numbers. The election of 1828 attracted 1.2 million voters; that number jumped to 1.5 million in 1836 and to 2.4 million in 1840. Turnout of eligible voters by 1840 was well over 60 percenthigher than it had ever been, and much higher than it is now." (Remini, 1998)
The assumption of citizens having power in the political process is correct to a certain extent. Citizens do gain power in the political process by participating, but it must be done in the masses to be successful in getting what they want. Individually, the people have very little say on what goes on, however, every person 's vote counts and will make some difference in the outcome. If every person participated in the political process, they would have more power towards electing political officials, choosing what laws are passed, and they also have the ability to get public issues noticed when they feel they are being neglected. On the other hand, even if every person in the country voted, there is still that possibility that the people could be ignored due to a bigger and louder voice known as the wealthy. The people who have most of the power to affect the political process are the few people in the world that hold most of the wealth. These people have the ability to convince congressional representatives to vote against a certain law that is not in favor of the wealthy. They do this by supporting the political officials financially by donating money for their campaigns. Overall, citizens do have some power in the political process and have the ability to force the politicians to hear their opinions, but there is always the chance that the wealthy can overrule the people 's vote with the power of their
Since 1912, only about 50 to 65 percent of Americans have voted in presidential elections and still fewer in other elections: 40 to 50 percent in off-year congressional elections and as few as 10 to 20 percent in primaries and minor local elections, although the exact number depends on how turnout is measured (Greenberg, and Page, 2009). Voter turnout started dropping at the end of the nineteenth century, reaching the 60 percent level by the election of 1912 (Teixeira, 1987). The right to vote, originally quite limited, was. expanded in various historical surges to include nearly all adults and to apply to most major offices. Turnout is lower than it was in the late nineteenth century in the US and lower than in other democratic countries, it has continued to decrease, not including the recent presidential elections (Greenberg, and Page, 2009).
This week’s readings continued to the analysis, evaluations, and critiques of retrospective voting specifically focusing on why voters tend to focus only on election-year economic growth rather cumulative economic growth when going to the polls to reelect or vote out incumbent presidents. This paper will assess the implications of the reading by Achen and Bartels and Healy and Lenz, and what they say about the health of American democracy.
The American government prides itself on the foundational principle of democracy which allows individual voices to be heard. Afterall, the roots of power in our nation stem from the people. The Constitution was established to ensure the balance of powers among the federal government, state legislature, and the common people. Time, however, has worked against the American people in the battle towards democracy. The idea of a governing body drawing its power directly from its constituents has been undermined by the corrupt nature of modern politics where politicians act out of self-interest. While the Constitution and later amendments had every intention of securing basic liberties, certain limitations later undermined the original intentions of the founding fathers to give power back to the people by placing the larger majority of power in the hands of the state.
Thirty-six - The percent of eligible voters who cast votes in the midterm elections of 2014. The number of American participating in midterm elections has been falling ever since 1964 (DelReal). With less than half of voting eligible Americans going to polling places, there are those who call for change in the current American political system. Twenty-two countries require citizens to vote and this has greatly increasing voter turnout in their elections. Some say compulsory voting is needed in America, but compulsory voting is not a good option because it would decrease the weight of the votes of those who care, give advantages to some political parties and infringe on personal liberties.
The American people feel powerless and are extremely uneducated in relation to politics government, and the world around them. Civic participation is considered a fruitless measure in the minds many American citizens. When interviewed on the subject; many depict themselves as a minute part of a huge entity in which they have no control. Others expressed a lack of time and energy that it takes to be involved, or a dependence on the country as a whole - to make the right decisions. The understanding of democracy and its principals are concepts of an unknown territory that is feared in relation to a general lack of education on the subject. Therefore, civic participation continues to plummet. Moreover, lack of education in government structure infused with a romanticized knowledge of history also contributes significantly to this lack participation. The American people are in need of empowerment by use of education in the structure of government, history, and politics that should begin at an early age, and be instituted within every curriculum across the country.
Political participation is at an extremely low rate in the United States. According to Regan, only around fifty-three percent of registered voters actually turned up to the voting booth to cast their votes in the 2016 presidential election (2016). The causation of this epidemic can be explained using numerous trends found throughout American society. Although voting is only one facet of participation in politics, likewise involvement through other means is also very low. This causes numerous complications in regards to our democratic process. These problems could be resolved through the raising of participation. Although this process of getting the American public to get more involved in politics has proven to be problematic, the implementation
An intrinsic element in the success of a democratic society is the willingness of the people to be self-governing. In modern America, to say that we have a government that is for, by, and of the people does not mean that each citizen is autocratic and simply 'takes the law into his or her own hands,' but rather that each citizen has the responsibility to actively participate in this large-scale experiment known as American Democracy. Therefore, the problem of declining voter participation is a serious one indeed.
All that can really be seen is what appears before ourselves. What we see on billboards, television, or radio show constantly the views of a new runner for politics whom proclaims what he or she wishes to accomplish. Listening to it, one can create a thought of why did they choose that topic for an argument? Today not all people vote so the ones who do are the people these “runners” focus on. Why would they fight to create increased pay to schools if all the voters are the elderly? Why not focus upon retirement benefits or healthcare? As citizens we have complaints on how the government manages our money and yet we do not do anything about it. Voting gives a chance. If certain groups grew in votes different ideas would be made for these “runners”. Say the young adults started to vote a lot more. We could have schooling benefits, less tuition fees, higher education levels, and possibly a large increase in jobs. One United Kingdom publisher explains, “If you vote, the campaigners urge, the politicians will have to listen to you and things will change.”(Kirkup, The Telegraph). Also youth have the longest time, and live what the country becomes. To conclude, voting doesn’t take long and doesn’t require almost any effort. All it requires just an open mind and yet people just do not realize this opportunity. Right now we could be living in the richest most opportunistic country if everyone could understand what can become of our views. Life could be looked forward not
Voting is very much in the mind of the individual. Many United States citizens feel as though they have a civic duty to vote, that the democratic process doesn 't work unless people are actively participating in it- Others believe that their vote isn 't going to make a difference. Citizens who need the most help from the government and could get the most help, are often unable to have their voices heard. Vote suppression decreases the number of eligible voters and minimizes the electoral power of individuals. With the rise of social media, there are more young people involved in politics now more than ever, but a large number of the younger generation still do not vote. There are several reasons that one might