In America political participation is an important factor when discussing democratic governments. Americans use their participation as their voice. By definition, democratic governments depend on political participation by citizens in order to keep democracy alive. Therefore, when assuming that political participation does have an impact on political outcomes, one must come to the conclusion that it makes a large difference if some citizens are more active than others. More importantly, the large difference is mostly seen when some citizens are active, while others are not. When political participation is uneven as such, this brings unequal representation and democracy cannot be attained. For this reason, one must ask why do citizens participate? Rosenstone and Hansen believe that the reasons are both political and personal (RH pg.211). They state, “An abundance of political resources allows some citizens to bear the costs of involvement, and lack of resources prevents others. Powerful interests and identities motivate some citizens to seek the benefits of participation, and weaker interests and identities fail to stir others. Finally, candidates, parties, campaigns, interest gr

Another example of institutions that helps decrease inequalities are voluntary associations. While being involved in voluntary associations citizens may be informed of the importance of participating through other members because of certain ways laws may affect that association or what that association stands for. For example, school children may be at risk for some random reason and the PTA director decides that all PTA members need to know how they can save those children at risk. For this reason, those citizens or parents that aren’t usually active may become active just to insure that children are safe. A second illustration of this taking place is a union representative expressing the need for a strike when union workers are not getting treated well. Those who are used to participating and know the procedure will take those who do not know as much as them and teach them all the things that they need to know in order to become aware of kneeing the importance of education.

There are several reasons why citizens do not participate. Looking at this problem beyond the reasons of some citizens’ deed participation important while others do not, moves one to believe that there are other defacto discriminating factors and or inequalities that play a part in citizens participating in their government. After realizing these factors, it becomes obvious that there are mechanisms that increase inequalities and mechanisms that decrease inequalities. A mechanism that increases inequalities is socio-economic-status (SES). The average person would not understand how SES could help determine why some citizens participate and others do not however, Rosenstone and Hansen agree that class places a certain degree of uneven participation in the government. They state, “The wealthiest 5% of the population constitute 17% of the financial contributors to campaigns, but the poorest 16% constitute only 4%. The index of equality- at .08- indicates an extraordinary degree of class bias participation.” (RH pg.237-238) This indicates that the higher a citizen is on the SES scale the more likely they will be able to participate. The logic in this indication is that people who are higher on the SES scale possess resources such as income, education, and civic skills, which have a great impact on participation.

Some topics in this essay:
Rosenstone Hansen, Civic Skills, Participation America, Schlozman Brady, According Cole, According VSB, Furthermore America, civic skills, political participation, citizens participate, rh pg, voluntary associations, rosenstone hansen, political mobilizers, decrease inequalities, citizens civic, pg 34, citizens civic skills, rh pg 34, political mobilizers target, individuals united illegally, benefits individuals united,