A Study In Political Participation
This study will analyze and compare a
number of factors, including: family background, education, religion, gender,
ethnicity, and age; and determine how they may motivate individuals to become
active participants in politics. The underlying objective will determine which
of the previously mentioned factors seems to be most influential in political
participation.
Introduction
Why
do people get involved in politics? What factors account for people becoming
motivated in politics?
These questions
are important to the study of political science and how society fits in to
politics. Since the post-World War II era, there has been a steady decline in
voter turnout in elections and an apathetic trend in society towards politics in
general (Terchek p. 136).
If we can
determine the key factors which motivate individual members of society to become
actively involved in politics, we may possibly reverse this trend and have more
people in society voicing their opinions and become actively involved in the
decisions which affect society. We may be able to determine why people feel
that their vote does not count. If society can be educated in this area, it is
possible to show people that their vote does, in fact, count. The answers to
these questions are vital if we want to learn more about society and have
continued societal participation in government and politics.
Literature
Review
Political participation is not
a new subject of study to scholars of political science. Political scientists
have continually searched for answers as to why people do what they do,
including why people become involved in politics. Several studies in the past
ten to twenty years have focused on political participation and motivational
factors resulting in societal
participation.
First, several terms
and ideas must be broken down and clarified, beginning with
“participation”. According to Parry, “participation” is
defined as “the act of taking part or having a share with others in some
action” (Parry et al p. 3). This is a fairly common term. Parry later
states though, that confusion sets in when the word “political” is
added to “participation”. Again, according to Parry, collectively,
“Political participation should, clearly, consist in taking part in some
political action.” And, “The political participant must be someone
who has a reasonable expectation of influencing the policy decision or at the
very least of making his voice heard in the deliberations leading up to it. The
political actions that these participants take part in can range from simply
voting to holding the position of cabinet minister within a government”
(Parry et al p. 3).
Secondly, Douglas
Ashford discusses ideology in relation to political participation. He quotes J.
Gould in saying, “Ideology is a pattern of beliefs and concepts (both
factual and normative) which purport to explain complex social phenomena with a
view to directing and simplifying socio-political choices facing individuals and
groups” (Ashford p. 25). Ideologies of certain groups in society must be
studied in order to determine what factors may or may not spur their
participation. In fact, a person’s ideologies on certain issues have an
affect in whether or not that person becomes involved in
politics.
When discussing education as
a factor in participation, Milbrath writes,
Perhaps the surest single predictor of
political involvement is number of years of formal education. One may surmise
that education tends to widen the scope of one’s acquaintance with
political facts, to increase capacity to perceive the personal implications of
political events, or to enlarge one’s confidence in his own ability to act
effectively politically (Milbrath p.
54).
Thus, Milbrath has a strong
argument that education may be the most important factor in participation and it
may be deduced that the more education one has, the more likely that person is
to be politically involved.
Another
important concept to keep in mind is that of single-issue interest groups.
Sylvia Tesh says, “Citizen groups [are] organizing in even greater numbers
to push single issues…” she adds that they fight politicians who,
“disagree with them on one emotional issue, thus they paralyze the
traditional process of government compromise, and ignore the common good in
their selfish insistence on getting their own way” (Tesh p. 27). This
shows how people can get a sort of political tunnel vision and focus on one
issue that is important to them.
Some
single issues, which Tesh lists, include: abortion, disarmament, homosexuality,
guns, feminism, tax laws, or the environment. Other single issues can include a
person’s religion, women’s rights, ethnic groups and age groups
(senior citizen groups).
Tesh also
says, “Issue groups possess a deep concern for the public good and, far
from being selfish, they hold to a view of public decision-making” (Tesh
p. 28). Thus, in their eyes, they are doing a service to the
community.
John Clayton Thomas also
adds, “Given the many demands on their time and resources, most citizens
prefer not to be involved in most public decisions. Citizens usually want to be
involved only when they have strong feelings on an issue or when a decision will
affect them directly” (Thomas p. 56). And this may explain why people
only get involved in politics for a single-issue
cause.
A major issue to many citizens
is that of ethnicity. Ethnicity can be a single deciding factor in one’s
political participation. Terchek’s findings concern, “The relevance
of election issues, the symbolic importance of ethnicity to voters, and the
expected competitiveness of elections” (Terchek p.
135).
Terchek also cites Robert
Dahl’s observation that,
Participation increases when there are
important issues for potential participants and the alternatives are perceived
as significant. The presence of a minority member on the ballot might be
expected to increase minority group participation. Participation tends to
increase when people believe their efforts will change the outcome [particularly
if] the outcome will turn out badly if you do not participate. In this respect,
minority voters resemble other voters and are unlikely to vote when they believe
that their vote will make no difference (Terchek pp. 136-137). This offers an
explanation as to how ethnicity affects participation.
Theoretical
Framework
Based upon other
scholars’ observations and my own opinions, the following variables will
be considered as possible influences in a person’s involvement in
politics: family, education, religion, gender, ethnicity, and age. Any one of
these variables could be considered a single issue and as other scholars have
pointed out, many times people are only influenced by one or another, however,
this study will show that not always is this the case. In fact, a combination
of these variables can be a factor and one variable may affect another. The
following diagram shows possible relationships between variables:
Religion
Education
Family
Political Participation
Gender
Age
Race
Hypotheses:
When
studying factors of political participation I have formulated several
hypotheses, all of which are based on peoples’ individual ideologies.
First of all, If a person comes from a family that has been politically
involved, then that person is then likely to be involved in politics as well.
If a person has received a higher level of education (college degree or higher),
then that person will most likely be more aware of political and social issues
and will realize the importance of political participation and feel compelled to
become involved. Also, a person’s religion may influence their beliefs
and ideologies and move that person to become politically involved in the
interest of those beliefs and ideologies. Women may feel more compelled than
men to be politically active due in part to the minority issues of their gender.
In addition, those people belonging to a minority group may become politically
involved so they may protect the interests of their particular minority.
Lastly, older persons may feel more compelled to be politically involved than
younger persons as they have seen the effects of political involvement and have
realized the importance of political
participation.
Methodology
– Data Source
The data source
that will be used for this study must include all those people who are eligible
for some form of political participation, therefore, all those in the population
must be a minimum of eighteen (18) years of age, the minimum age required to
vote in St. Louis County, the state of Missouri and the United States. The
population will be focused on residents of St. Louis County and the data source
will be proportionate of the population and will be based on a method of random
selection, not excluding unregistered
voters.
Methodology – Data
Collection
Procedures
A
questionnaire will be mailed to all those in the selected population. The
questions will be closed-ended in nature and will ask for the person’s
level of agreement or disagreement with each question. Questions will be simple
and concise and as free from all bias as possible. The questions will simply
ask the respondent’s opinion of each of the following categories in
relation to how it influences their involvement in politics: family, education,
religion, gender, ethnicity, and age. Respectively, not to offend the
respondent, demographic questions will be placed at the end of the
questionnaire. A final question will ask the respondent to choose which of the
categories has had the greatest influence on their political
involvement.
Measures
The
answers to the returned questionnaires will be examined and the different
categories will be compared to one another. The more a respondent agrees with a
category being influential in their involvement in politics, the higher the
number: 1 strongly disagree, 2 disagree, 3 agree, 4 strongly agree, 9 no
response. Respondents’ scores will be totaled for each category. A
comparison by bar graph will show which categories respondents agreed with more
to those that were agreed with less. This will allow the most influential
category to be determined.
Implications and
Conclusions
This study is designed to
be as simple, accurate, and unbiased as possible. However, as with any study,
there is the possibility of error. These possibilities may include a bias in
the population surveyed as it may be heavy in one ethnic group or another or the
number of registered voters to non-registered voters may be unbalanced. These
factors may influence the results of the study. Assuming that the study is
successful, political scientists may gain knowledge about society and what
factors are influential in getting people interested in political participation.
With a better understanding of these factors, political scientists may also
better predict how voters will react to certain candidates and certain issues.
Citizens may be educated in the importance of political participation and may
realize that their vote does count and that they can make a difference.
Ultimately, political scientists someday may be able to reverse this seemingly
irreversible trend of voter apathy and non-participant members of society.
Works
Cited
Ashford, Douglas E. 1972.
Ideology and Participation. Beverly Hills: Sage
Publications.
Milbrath,
Lester W. 1971. Political Participation. Chicago: Rand McNally &
Company.
Parry,
Geraint, et al. 1972. Participation in Politics. London: Manchester
University
Press.
Terchek,
Ronald (Spring, 1979). Incentives And Voter Participation: A Research Note.
Political Science Quarterly,
94, 135-139.
Tesh, Sylvia
(Spring, 1984). In Support of “Single-Issue” Politics.
Political Science
Quarterly, 99,
27-44.
Thomas, John Clayton. 1995.
Public Participation in Public Decisions. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Posted: Sat
- August 28, 2004 at 11:48 AM