I accomplished my community service hours via political participation. After a whole semester experiencing politics that occurs on a daily basis. To understand what political participation is, we must consider the definition of it. Political participation is where people participate in society to the extent to where the people as active in the government (Lincoln, 2010). Some of these activities include voter registration, polling, and orientations. Without these simple events, the country would not be able to function fully because the people, who run this country, would participate less by voting less. To encourage and entice U.S. citizen's to participate in the political system, political parties run voter registration drives and informational meetings at popular events such as sporting events (Smith, Scholzman, Verba, Brady, 2009).
Participating politically is a very important responsibility in the United States and there are many ways of doing it. Citizens can simply vote during the Mid terms or Presidential Elections or be extreme by erecting voter registration booths or supporting the candidate or proposition with advertising. People, however are not the only entities that politically participate, other entities include interest groups and businesses (Jacobus, Dirk, 2002). Some famous interest groups that participate are AARP and the NRA, who both lobby the government to pass the propositions that appeal to the group the most (UCC, 2002). Interest groups are essential because they have members, who are enticed by the incentives the group offers, who are willing to vote for anyone or any proposition that will benefit them even more. Factions are also similar to interest groups except they do not lobby like interest groups, instead they compel candidates to look into their issue (UCC, 2002). Factions are also essential because they provide the country with voters. Political participation is also essential because voters are better informed on what the country is about to do than those who do not participate (Jacobus, Dirk, 2002), and when people are better informed then they are also better prepared to stop or inhibit their country from going to far such as war when diplomacy is possible.
We can observe today that a lack of political participation can cause havoc among the different levels of government. For example, take the extremely controversial SB 1070 that Arizona passed, and now imagine a scenario where all Hispanic U.S. citizen's living in Arizona (or any citizen who opposes it) oppose it. If this scenario had really happened, the SB 1070 would have had a harder time passing the Arizona State Congress, because more congressmen and governmental leaders would have started opposing it to increase their popularity (Arizona, 2010). Fortunately, the United States was created in such a way that everyone is given a second chance to support their opinion more strongly. Citizens who oppose any bill may have an opinion, but their opinion will not be effective until they participate in the government. However, until people express more of their opinions on the government's actions, they will have to suffer the consequences of not participating the first time. This example portrays why political participation is important and the consequences of not doing it.
Political participation mat seem unnecessary, because people believe that one vote does not matter. Well, they are gravely mistaken because if you look at Nazi Germany and you may observe that Adolf Hitler was elected because many German citizen's did not vote. The lack of political participation in this example almost led to Armageddon. Another example would be the DVUSD Override, which was passed by only two hundred votes. The Override could have passed because of the work Politico Club members did at the football games, and it could be a possibility that we changed enough people's mind on the proposition to actually get it passed. These two examples portray the contrasts of not politically participating and actually participating. I have never see one action have such different results, where the citizen's of one country almost led the world to ruin to where our education system is funded the same instead of the reduction of the education budget.
Political participation is more important than what a lot of people think it is. Without it, democratic countries falter and convert to another type of government, and with it democratic countries succeed. But we should remember, that political participation starts with the normal citizen, and without citizen's who care there will be no government.
Bibliography:
- Lincoln, Allison. (2010). Political Participation: Definition from Answers.com. Answers.com: Wiki Q&A Combined with Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedias. Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/political-participation.
- Smith, Schlozman, Verba, Brady. (2009). The current state of civic engagement in america. PewInternet. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/15--The-Internet-and-Civic-Engagement/2--The-Current-State-of-Civic-Engagement-in-America/2--Participation.aspx
- Jacobus, Dirk. (2002). Social capital and political participation among ethnic minority groups in brussels. PAPER for the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops. Retrieved from http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/jointsessions/paperarchive/turin/ws14/jacobs.pdf.
- UCC. (2002, October 2). Interest groups. Retrieved from http://faculty.ucc.edu/egh-damerow/interest_groups1.htm.
- Arizona, Az. Arizona Senate, 49th Legislature. (2010). Senate bill 1070. Retrieved from http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf.
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