Voter Apathy
Voter Apathy
In theory, every American citizen has an equal say in the political affairs of this county. By participating in politics, people air their voices and thereby contribute to nation through representatives, hence the term representative democracy. It may seem to be beyond argument that political participation is a key objective in all democratic institutions.. This raises the important question of how much participation there actually is in the United States. How many Americans take part in activities such as voting, attending political meetings, joining political parties, or even discussing politics with their neighbors? The answer is surprisingly few for a country that prides itself on democracy. In some respects, Americans are as ambivalent about political participation as they are about democratic values. On the one hand, large numbers of Americans believe that the ordinary citizen should play a part in public affairs. Relatively few Americans actually take the initiative do so. Americans often express the view that they are obligated as citizens to engage in politics, even though they are not involved in any real form of political activity. This view suggests that Americans tend to be more passive than active political participants. This brings us to the controversial topic of voter turn out in the United States.
According to one common view, the quality of democracy depends upon the extent to which voters use their rights to vote and to take part in public life. It is healthy if memberships of political parties are large and active, and if attendance at political rallies is high, and so on. In the United States, voter turnout hovers around an astounding fifty percent, which is lowest among all industrialized democracies (R.) In a democracy, a high priority is typically associated with voting (on a national scale), as a way for people to influence policy makers. By electing officials to represent their...
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