Participation and

Democracy

GOVT 1315
Keith
Lecture 8

Responsiveness in Democracy
http://laits.utexas.edu/gov310/DC/index.html

Participation and Democracy

What is Political Participation?

Forms and Levels of Participation
Voting as Political Participation
Participation and Democracy

I. What Is Participation?
Activities by private citizens
aimed at influencing the
selection of government
personnel and/or their
actions.

II. Forms & Levels of

Participation
Conventional
Unconventional
Range: Complete Activists to
Completely Inactive
Decline in participation:
http://laits.utexas.edu/gov310/PIG/index.html

II. Forms & Levels of

Participation
Why Non-participation?
Individual reasons
System reasons

III. Voting as Political Participation

Numbers
Turnout variation across groups
Percent

Base of Registered Voters

Base of Voting Age Population

Registration and Turnout

http://www.usavotenet.com/turnout.htm

http://elections.gmu.edu/voter_turnout.htm

Registration and Turnout

STATE
Alabama

VAP

VEP

# VOTERS

T/O VAP

T/O VEP

3,511,263

3,382,705

1,250,401

35.6%

37.0%

486,178

461,552

237,322

48.8%

51.4%

Arizona

4,575,232

3,914,592

1,526,782

33.4%

39.0%

Arkansas

2,140,136

2,003,446

749,991

35.0%

37.4%

California

26,607,550

21,321,866

8,679,416

32.6%

40.7%

Colorado

3,567,503

3,226,358

1,558,405

43.7%

48.3%

Connecticut

2,689,258

2,424,201

1,134,780

42.2%

46.8%

Delaware

662,028

617,101

254,099

38.4%

41.2%

District of Columbia

429,295

386,204

120,620

28.1%

31.2%

Florida

14,159,475

12,084,162

4,829,270

34.1%

40.0%

Georgia

6,993,905

6,178,330

2,122,258

30.3%

34.4%

990,269

892,208

344,315

34.8%

38.6%

Idaho

1,100,336

1,031,965

450,832

41.0%

43.7%

Illinois

9,584,796

8,753,912

3,486,671

36.4%

39.8%

Indiana

4,711,595

4,550,417

1,666,922

35.4%

36.6%

Iowa

2,324,225

2,209,005

1,048,033

45.1%

47.4%

Kansas

2,094,923

2,001,783

849,700

40.6%

42.4%

Kentucky

3,229,925

3,119,001

1,253,526

38.8%

40.2%

Louisiana

3,409,534

3,281,965

902,498

26.5%

27.5%

Maine

1,056,229

1,043,516

550,865

52.2%

52.8%

Maryland

4,242,996

3,726,877

1,788,316

42.1%

48.0%

Massachusetts

4,925,228

4,546,112

2,219,779

45.1%

48.8%

Michigan

7,619,793

7,284,029

3,801,256

49.9%

52.2%

Alaska

Hawaii

Registration and Turnout

South Dakota

597,868

580,750

335,508

56.1%

57.8%

Tennessee

4,656,122

4,420,807

1,833,695

39.4%

41.5%

Texas

16,947,603

14,244,204

4,399,068

26.0%

30.9%

1,831,168

1,682,195

571,252

31.2%

34.0%

495,672

479,676

262,726

53.0%

54.8%

Virginia

5,860,190

5,284,024

2,370,445

40.4%

44.9%

Washington

4,917,562

4,504,541

2,083,734

42.4%

46.3%

West Virginia

1,439,220

1,420,027

459,884

32.0%

32.4%

Wisconsin

4,292,427

4,097,390

2,161,700

50.4%

52.8%

Wyoming

402,141

392,548

193,892

48.2%

49.4%

226,357,769

203,655,708

83,771,171

37.0%

41.1%

Utah
Vermont

AVERAGE

Voter Turnout around the World

http://laits.utexas.edu/gov310/PIG/index.html

Nonvoters Share of Vote

http://laits.utexas.edu/gov310/PIG/index.html

Voting/Nonvoting by Age

IV. Participation and Democracy

Who participates?
Pluralism v. Elitism
Elites, Nonelites, and Democracies