“Democracy Is Popularly Conceived As Government Of The

The authors’ hypothesis in Democratic Practice and Democratic Theory states that requirements for voters exist to be followed but are difficult to follow, so only little of the electorate meet the requirements. The authors state that every voter should seek to have the requirements of great voters, including having great interest in politics, participating in discussions, and knowing much about politics. The authors declare that politicians have to accept the behavior of the voters. Also, even though the requirements are not met, the authors add that a positive side as the distribution of participation helps create

In the article “The Myth of the Vanishing Voter” by Michael P. McDonald and Samuel L. Popkin, it is argued that the decline in voter participation in national elections since 1972 is an illusion created by the Bureau of the Census because it uses the voting-age population to calculate voter turnout instead of calculating the population of citizens who are eligible to vote (2001, 963).

The debate over compulsory vs. non-compulsory voting is a complex subject matter to say the least, that has sparked much controversy in recent times with almost all strongly in favor of one side of the argument and or the other. This highly polarized debate has sparked in popularity in recent times because of a quote by former president Barak Obama in which he said that “It would be transformative if everybody voted”. It is believed that if everyone voted that could and was eligible then the domination of hard core partisans within the political system would be in part quelled as the candidates went where the votes are, which would be away from the extremes. Moreover some studies show that mandatory voting decreases the rates of uninformed voters within an area as voting becomes more of a civic duty than right. While the institution of compulsory voting would have a short term effect of increasing the rate of uninformed voters,

Low turnout rates in national election are a major problem caused by voter’s lack of motivation and lack of interest form the newer generations. Low turnout rates evolved into a major problem as the amount of voters had been on the a constant decline since the 1960s, where the Kennedy-Nixon race of 1960 peak at a 63% turnout and the latter elections fail to deliver such high rate (Patterson 2002, p. 4). The turnout then plunged to only 49% in the 1996 election due to the one-sided nature of the Clinton-Dole race, it was noted that 96.3 million Americans voted and 100.3 million opted to let it be (Patterson 2002, p. 4). This is a clear display to lack of motivation/interest from voters, the lopsided race made voting unattractive, nobody wanted to

Before I go into the topic, let’s make clear the definition of the term ‘political apathy’ first. Political apathy is public or individual indifference towards political events and movements. Sad to say, this term that is coined up applies in most cases to youths in today’s society. And by youths, they are those who are born in the 1980s, of age 20 and above currently. Though political apathy being present in the States, China and Singapore is an undeniable fact, the political apathy will still be different in one way or another, depending on where you are looking at.

A crisis in participation can be defined as a serious situation in which there has been a drop in, or lack of citizens engaging in political activities designed to influence government decision making. In this essay, I will demonstrate how there is a contemporary crisis in participation in traditional forms of political participation. This is however more significant amongst young and unskilled groups. I will show how there is an increase in participation in more informal methods of participation as social norms evolve, and how this reduces the extent to which there is a crisis.

Democracy is built on freedom to vote and have your political say, but the majority of people in the world’s ‘greatest’ democracies never vote at all. Is compulsory participation in the political system the answer? Investigate countries which make voting compulsory – weigh the advantages and disadvantages – then argue for or against this policy.

A democratic government is one in which the “supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation” (Merriam-Webster). In theory, a true democracy is one that is governed by the people in the form of “the rule of the majority”. This is a process that seems to have been naturally embedded in the human mind. In many circumstance, whether it is world leaders deciding on new international policy, or kids choosing what to watch for “movie night”, the rule of the majority seems to often prevail. Even so, in certain recognized democratic nations such as Canada, the rule of the majority is not triumphant. It is inevitable that any political system would have its shortcomings, but there are some flaws that are difficult to overlook – especially those that seem to undermine the democratic credibility of a nation. Due to a variety of factors, such as politically inactive citizens and a not-so-representative electoral system, it is evident that the Canadian democracy is lacking democracy.

Voting is an expression of hope, a belief that a citizen’s input into the system will yield social dividends. Without hope, citizens doubt that anything they say or do will change the country for their benefit. Viewing it from another perspective, politicians rarely offer disillusioned citizens reasons for optimism. As a result, those citizens don’t show up at the polls and vote because they do not believe that anything politicians say or do will make life better for them according to Fulwood (2014).

There are two types of regimes: democracies and dictatorships. As political scientist, Samuel P. Huntington describes it, “a country is democratic to the extent that its most powerful collective-decision makers are selected through fair, honest, and periodic elections in which candidates freely compete for votes and in which virtually all the adult population is eligible to vote.” This definition has since become one of the most widely accepted definitions of democracy among political scientists. A dictatorship, on the other hand, is any other type of regime. Although this may not have been the case a century ago, democracy tends to have a positive connotation attached to it, most likely due to the positive effects associated with it, such as higher levels of wealth and civic engagement. However, this paper will prove that wealth and civic engagement are the products of the underlying causes of democracy, not the democracy itself.

Elections are the most vital mechanism for a democracy since it is the role of the citizens to elect the representatives of their government. As one of the most established democracies, Canada had been experiencing decreasing participation in its elections. In 2008, voter turnout in Canada hit its lowest point at an average of 58.8%, keeping in mind that the average voter turnout in Canada has been 70.7% (Canada, 2017). Even though there may not be one coherent explanation, there are a few predictors that could justify the decline in Canada’s voter turnout. Firstly, political interest is essential in motivating citizens to participate in politics, and the least informed citizens are the less motivated they are to participate. Secondly, personal barriers such as age, gender, race, language and socio-economic status play a major role as a determinant for the participation in elections. Finally, Canada’s current electoral process - the system in which citizens use to cast their votes is a factor that may deter participants from voting because of its cited weaknesses. For instance, the current system has brought into question its lack of democracy and representation. Therefore, while participation in federal elections is essential to a functioning democracy, there has been a decline in voter turnout due to lack of political interest, personal barriers, and the electoral process.

In today’s society people often argue that there is a massive distrust in the government and the actions that occur within the political sphere. In the United States specifically, nearly two-thirds of the American population believe their government is in decline (Keane). This decline is seen through the widening gap of the rich and poor, extreme xenophobia of politicians, and young citizens left jobless due to unemployment figures on the rise (Keane). Thus, it is easy to see that people feel they no longer are being protected by the government. Furthermore, people may feel that politics is becoming more of an area for the powerful and less of what it was intended to be. Politics should be an arena for politicians to fight for and protect their jurisdictions interests, as opposed to job where leaders mindlessly show up for their 9 to 5. When individuals feel that this is the case, there is the potential less interest in politics, and political disillusionment. Distrust exists in the political sphere and is manifested in political disinterest and disillusionment.

Democracy is a system of government where the people will make political decisions. Which is either direct

Voter turnout is defined as “the total number of voters who participated” and in this particular instance, in a general election in New Zealand. Voter turnout has steadily been declining in New Zealand. During World War II voter turnout exceeded 90%, and has been on a steady decline since the 1960’s. In recent general elections, turnout has been the lowest in recent history with the 2011 election being notable for it’s low voter turnout of just 74.2% of eligible voters voting in the election, and to find an election with lower voter turnout you would have to go all the way back to 1887. “1 million didn 't bother to vote” in the 2011 election, and some theories as to why include voter mobilisation, psychology and ‘habit’, and age. In this essay I will be arguing why declining voter turnout in New Zealand matters and why, and include why it is on the decline, the type of voters that do not vote, why declining turnout matters and how to increase turnout.

Gallagher and Mitchell (2005) explain some countries electoral system itself can be a major political issue. Gallagher and Mitchell wrote, “They (electoral system) are a crucial link in the chain connecting the preferences of citizens to the policy choices made by the government.” (Gallagher and Mitchell: 2005). They are explaining electoral system plays a certain role in the government therefore could have an input on voter turnout. This makes their research an interesting topic to focus on to study further to see if there is a relationship between turnout and electoral system. Depending on the electoral system, may make potential voters to believe their vote is not as important as other’s voter and will restrain them from going to the poll booth (Jackman, 1987). Various electoral system could have lower