Class Notes for Friday, October 10th

conventional participation- relatively routine, no threatening behavior that uses the channels of representative government
1) supportive behaviors- support government and Patriotism
2) influencing behaviors- modify/reverse government policy

-individuals with higher economic status are more likely to contact public officials to ask for special services
-citizens demand more of local than national government
-citizens engage in 2 kinds of activities that influence the selection of government personnel and policies:
1) low-initiative acts- don't require much effort (i.e. voting)
2) high-initiative acts- require active participation by individuals to obtain benefits for a group

-compared with citizens of other countries, Americans are less likely to vote in elections but more likely to engage in other forms of conventional participation
-participation through elections and voting lies at the heart of the democratic process
-progressivism left an important legacy of mechanisms for direct participation, particularly in the policymaking process:
A) their state-run direct primary
B) recall
C) referendum
D) initiative
-the standard socioeconomic model of participation suggests that people with more education, higher incomes, and white collar jobs are more likely to participate in politics

-unconventional behavior isn't related to higher socioeconomic status
-education is the strongest single predictor of political participation
-regardless of socioeconomic status, young people are less likely to participate in conventional participation than those over age 45
-gender- since 1992, women's turnout has exceeded men's
-race and ethnicity- not very accurate due to other factors, however, if we disregard those factors, whites are more likely to vote than blacks or latinos.
-as religious involvement increases, so does political participation

-low voting turnout can be attributed to several factors:
-turnout has declined for 2 main reasons-
1) lowering of voting age
2) belief of efficacy in voting is declining
-voting turnout is lower than in other countries for 3 reasons:
1) in US, voting laws and election procedures don't encourage voting
a) no election holidays
b) burden of registration left to individual
1) motor-voter law helped
2) political parties fail to mobilize voters because of weak party-group linkages
3) inadequate info about large number of candidates and offices discourages people from voting

-according to the normative theory, individuals should be free to participate in politics as they wish and as much as they wish
a) all barriers to participation should be abolished
b) the value of freedom in participation will allow all forms