Decline of Political Participation What

Decline of Political Participation

What is the Significance in the Decline of Political Participation of Individuals in Western Democracies?

The objective of this work is to examine the significance of the decline of political participation of individuals in Western Democracies. This will be accomplished through a review of scholarly materials pertaining to this subject. There can be no denial based in truth which claims that true representation of the majority opinion in government is demonstrated in a democracy if that democracy has low levels of citizen participation in the political events of a country. According to Habermas:

The institutional design of modern democracies brings together three elements: first, the private autonomy of citizens, each of whom pursues a life of his/her own; second, democratic citizenship, i.e., the inclusion of free and equal citizens in the political community; and third the independence of a public sphere that operates as an intermediary system between state and society." (Kellner, nd)

Habermas state that it is these three elements which:

form the normative bedrock of liberal democracies (irrespective of the diversity otherwise of constitutional texts and legal orders, political institutions and practices)." Assuming then that this is true, then it can be understood that without any one of these three that democracy within a country must be in part on the decline. (Kellner, nd)

Habermas goes on to state that this institutional design is one that "embodies ideas from different political philosophies." Habermas explains that each of the traditions of democracy "gives a different weighting to equal liberties for everybody, democratic participation and government by public opinion." The point made by Habermas is that "government by public opinion" is a necessary ingredient for a working democracy whether it be governed by the Democratic democracy or the Republican democracy. This is further affirmed in the work entitled: "Now or Never" presented at the symposium on 'Citizenship: Learning by Doing" the author, Dr. Helena Catt, states that:

Political Science research indicates that political participation is a learnt habit which is in decline. One strong predictor of levels of participation is efficacy, which refers to an individual's perception of their ability to know what is going on, be heard and make a difference politically. Another strong predictor is the extent to which people think an election is a real contest and therefore if it is worth voting. Participation is declining as efficacy declines, elections are seen as less competitive and people do not acquire the habit of voting let alone other forms of political participation." (Catt, 2005)

The work entitled: "Generational Change the Decline of Political Participation; The Case of Voter Turnout in Canada" states that all the literature related to failure to vote indicates that "education is one of the strongest correlates of voting: the more schooling people have, the more likely they are to vote." (Blais, Gidengil, Nadeau, & Nevittet, 2002) Further stated is that: "Religiosity has been found to boost turnout" in voting "both in Canada (Glass et al. 2001) and elsewhere (Blais, 2000; Miller and Wattenberg 1984; Oppenhuis 1995; Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995)." (Blais, Gidengil, Nadeau, & Nevittet, 2002) The authors state a belief that this is due to encouragement of voting based on a duty to vote. Dennis and Owen (2001) believe that "support for the political regime hinges first and foremost on citizen's orientations towards the party system because parties remain the most crucial linkable between the people and the government in a representative democracy. If people think that no party really represents their views, they will feel that the political system is fatally flawed. And when this happens, they may simply decide not to vote." (Ibid) Further findings in the study of Blais, Gidengil, Nadeau, & Nevittet (2002) include the fact that voters are more likely to vote when they have been contacted by a political party about placing their vote.

Other factors include those as follows:

1) Differences in social background characteristics - this accounted for half of the turnout gap between the youngest two cohorts in the study of Blais, Gidengil, Nadeau, & Nevittet (2002) which is attributed to a "weaker sense of voting duty."

2) The voters conceived there was little or no actual competition in the political race. (Blais, Gidengil, Nadeau, & Nevittet, 2002)

3) Low level of interest and information of those born after 1970. (Blais, Gidengil, Nadeau, & Nevittet, 2002)

The authors, Blais, Gidengil, Nadeau, & Nevittet (2002) conclude their work by stating that: "The decline in turnout since the 1988 election does not bode well for the country's democratic health." (Ibid) The work of Dietlind Stolle and Marc Hooghe (nd) hold that each civic generation which is replaced by cohorts of a younger age causes the social capital stock of American communities to slowly diminish. (paraphrased) The study used indicators for substantiation of the claim including: measures for voter turnout, attendance of club meetings, generalized trust, and other factors.