Chapters (5&21): Individual and Interest Groups

Political Participation In the U.S & Texas

Objectives

· Methods individuals may use to

participate in public policy process

· Levels of political participation in the U.S.

and other Democratic countries

· Reasons for the differences in participation

· Groups participation

Individual participation

Ø these are methods through which individuals

attempt to influence the policy process

methods of political participation

1. voting àis the most common method of political participation.

Voting for candidates: president, governor, congress

àfor constitutional amendment

àfor city charter change

àfor general obligation bond election

àfor referendum

2. election campaigns:

àcontribute money, àstuff envelopes

àman phones, àput up yard signs

3. through interest groups

àMADD, NRA, pro-life, pro-choice

4. contact governmental officials

àwrite or phone elected officials

5. through unconventional political acts

àprotest demonstration

àsit-ins, àviolence

Comparative participation rate

Ø U.S. lags behind most other democratic countries,

when it comes to voter turn out rate.

Ø survey sowed that the US ranks 139 out of 163 countries surveyed in both:

àin electoral/presidential political participation rate

àin legislative participation rate

Ø reaserch between (1990-200) also showed that presidential elections has the highest

level of voter out rate in the U.S. compared to congressional midterm elections.

Electoral legislative elections (1991-2000)

U.S Australia Canada Britain Sweden

44% 85% 64% 75% 83%

Factors behind low participation rate in the U.S.

· historical factors of Property Qualifications (1800-1840)

used by states. Most states eliminated property ownership

for suffrage rights by 1840.

· 15th Amendment prohibited state voting restrictions associated

with “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

· while the 15^th Amendment extended suffrage

to blacks, it has also limited states’ election laws.

· however, states still find ways to disenfranchise

· through: àpoll tax àwhite primary elections only, àliteracy test

· cumbersome voter registration

laws in most states which requires 30 days

registration before an election is one of the

highest negative factors affecting participation rate

· younger electorate

26^th Amendment of 1971 lowered voting age from

21 to 18 years thereby lowering participation rate

· political party ties are weaker

fewer people identify with a political party now than in the 1960s

· fallen two-adult household

single adults are less likely to vote.

· citizens are more mobile

people new to an area lack community ties

and are more likely to fail to register to vote

negative advertising by candidates

turn people away from the polls & increases

distrust of political process

Securing the Right to Vote

· Six milestones mark the long history of suffrage, which is the right to vote:

1. Elimination of Property Qualifications, 1800–1840.

The Founders believed in property requirements for voting

but did not write it into the Constitution, preferring to leave this to the states,

where property qualifications were the rule.

2. Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 stated that citizens could not be

denied the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

The federal government was given the power to enforce

voting rights for African Americans.

3. From 1870 to 1964, voting rights for African Americans were often

denied in spite of the Fifteenth Amendment.

Some of the methods used to disenfranchise:-

àPoll taxes were eliminated by the 24th Amendment.

àThe Congress eliminated literacy tests in 1970.

4. The 19th Amendment, 1920, conferred on women the right to vote.

5. The 26th Amendment, 1971, gave 18-year-olds the vote.

6. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, known as the “Motor Voter Act,”

required that the states offer voter registration services at

driver’s license offices, welfare offices, and by mail, using simplified forms

supplied by the Federal Election Commission.

Proposals to increase voter turnout

· National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) à

motor voter registration bill of 1993

· registration deadlines to be closer to election day

· same day registration & voting

· toll-free numbers to request absentee ballots

· increase usage of mail balloting

· vote early (Texans laws allow early voting in all elections)

who participates?

· Can be classified into 3 groups

apolitical marginally attentive political elites

apolitical or apathetic

· younger people

· Latinos

· single people

· people with low education

marginally attentive

· only vote sometimes

attentive or political elites

· true political activists

· they participate all the time --> the educated, older and wealthier

Highest factors affecting participation rate

1. education

2. age àmiddle to older Americans

3. higher income level

Voter Turnout by Social groups

Race or ethnicity

· Blacks & Whites participation rate are similar

· Latinos participation rate is substantially lower

Gender

· Men are more likely to engage in many other forms

of participation but women are more likely to vote

· Men contribute more money than women

Participation rate in Texas: Chapter 21

· Texas joined the union in 1845

· TX. and other southern states limited

the right to vote to white males only

· Much of the state subsequent story are

efforts of women and minority groups to

gain the right to vote

· Blacks first register to vote in 1867

after the Reconstruction

state disfranchisement of minorities from 1876

1. Poll tax in 1902àaffected every poor person.

It lasted more than 60 years in Texas before it was

outlawed by the 24^th Amendment to the U.S. constitution

2. White primary elections à(1924 intra-party election

where only whites can vote). Eliminated by the

U.S. Supreme Court.

3. private organization (1935)

Democratic party declared the party as a private

organization and can therefore control membership executive

committee. The executive committee only allow White males as

members.

4. at-large election

where qualified voters of a state or county vote to select a

public official, was designed to prevent minorities from

wining elections because they lacked the numbers and organization to

compete in state or county wide elections

5. single district election

is where a state, city or a subdivision is divided into districts but

racial gerrymandering and lately political gerrymandering

has resulted in a lot of court rulings

6. Gerrymandering

· Drawing of legislative district lines to do:

à Minority vote dilution

à minority vote packing

Voting Rights Act (VRA) 1965

· VRA was passed to stop the disenfranchisement of minorities

· VRA requires states or local governments with past history

of election discrimination to seek pre-approval from

U.S. Justice Dept. or U.S. District Court for the

district of Columbia before implementing changes in:

àelection laws

àredistricting

to prevent minority vote dilution or vote packing through racial gerrymandering.

Political participation today in TX.

· Level of participation rate is relatively low, below national avg.

· TX. ranks 46 out of 50 states

· Minority participation rate has increased but not

appropriate in numbers to the state population

reasons for low participation rate in TX.

· Younger electorate àavg. age is 32 years

· Labor unions are relatively weak

· High percentage of recent immigrants

· High poverty rate

· Ballot complexity (long ballot)

· Too many elections

K. Ituah