Reform Now Before it is Too Late

Our founding fathers established America with greatness in mind, democracy for the people at its best. Decades have passed and the democratic practices our founding fathers created are changing in accordance of times. The government is no longer simple, the country is no longer of thirteen states, and the lives of people are different than back then. One must admit that there are problems with the current political system. It is crucial that reforms are made because the America political system is made of weak citizen participation and the undermining of campaigns for elections.

In the current political system, there is a widespread apathy of voters with no single definitive explanation. It is not a new phenomenon because as Rosenstone said, it is the “record of citizen participation over the last half of the twentieth century presents a set of vexing puzzles” (Rosenstone 1). The lack of citizen participation goes against the practical democracy our founding fathers fought for. In order for democracy to work, the people need to utilize to the fullest potential of what the government can presents. Offers such as deliberation, voting, and participation are the cores of democracy; yet in today’s political system, citizen participation is limited.

Though political scientists have been trying to understand the reason behind this apathy, no single possible justification can explain the lack of interest. Studies believed to have traced the “activism to the characteristics of individual [] to their educations, their incomes, and their efficacy” (Rosenstone 3). Kettering Foundation also suggests that because citizens are denied access to the larger politics being involved; politics was taken away from them, and the relation...

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...ed out, we cannot call this country the land that Abraham said with his heart, “[the] government of the people, by the people, for the people”.

Works Cited

Barber, Benjamin. 1984. Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age. Berkeley: California. pp. xix-xxiv, 3-25, and 117-162.

Clawson, Dan, Alan Neustadtl, and Mark Weller. 1998. Dollars and Votes. Temple University Press. pp. 1-31.

Hindman, The Myth of Digital Democracy, chapter 1, 2 and 6

Kettering Foundation, “Citizens and Politics: A View from Main Street America.”

Mueller, John. 1999. Capitalism, Democracy & Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery. Princeton University Press. pp. 137-189.

Rosenstone, Steven J., and John Mark Hansen. 1993. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. New York: MacMillan. pp. 1-37

Smith, Bradley A. 2001. Unfree Speech. Princeton University Press. pp. 39-64