CHAPTER Fourteen
Voting, Campaigns, and Elections

Take a Position

An ideal citizen would pay full attention to all issues and participate fully in democracy. U.S. voter participation rates do not demonstrate a public made up of ideal citizens. Political scientists have long struggled to explain why American voter turnout is low and the effects of this low turnout for democracy. In discussing the reasons for nonvoting, political scientists have put forward and debated many hypotheses, but no firm answers have stuck. Of the explanations for nonvoting discussed in the text, which are the strongest? Should we be alarmed about nonparticipation?

Take a position: Why do Americans have such low voting rates, and are low voter turnouts a threat to American democracy?



As you develop your argument, answer the following questions:

• Are Americans lazy and is nonvoting merely a matter of Americans failing to appreciate the wonderful system we have?
• Or is the opposite true: Are Americans working so hard that they do not have time to overcome the numerous disincentives to voting? Do our registration laws, Tuesday voting, frequent elections, and long ballots explain why we don't vote as often as others?
• Perhaps we are merely rational nonvoters. Do we simply calculate that our vote will not make much of a difference and therefore rationally skip voting?
• Many Americans do not feel that their voice matters in American politics. Do too many Americans lack political efficacy? Do they abstain out of frustration and helplessness?
• Or are things going so well for Americans that they do not think it matters who is running the country?