Politics and Sociolgy

Question

The past few years have seen a rise in political engagement. In addition to voting, how can U.S. citizens influence political processes and outcomes? Which of these strategies have you personally used? If you have not engaged in any political behaviors, why haven't you? What can your actions tell a sociologist about the government as social institution?

Answer 1

Many or most people vote a straight party ticket, just reading the ballot candidates' party affiliation and voting for the party, not the person, knowing little or nothing about most of the candidates.

Major rise in political engagement would be to read more and be knowledgeable about the individual candidates running. There generally is less voting in primaries, as you would have to know the persons, and not just their party.

other strategies are engaging in political discussions with more people. Today that seems to lead to heated irrational arguments, and even violence, more than real informative discussion.

More strategies are driving voters on Election Day to get out the vote. Today with early voting and remote voting, it seems less important or useful, as people vote when they want. You would find it harder to spend months driving people comparied to just a one day drive.

Pass out campaign flyers, containing information not generally known about the candidate, in a close race, to tip the difference. Generally, these flyers tend to be political propaganda rather than usefully informative. Aside from propaganda, the flyer may be misleading and dishonest, with campaign promises never intended to be kept.

Volunteer as an Election Day worker, to pass out the ballots and check the voters' ID. Some states let anyone vote with no ID, so you'd be less useful in those states.

Run for office yourself. Start at some minor local office, such as the school board, which often has no salarly. Or encourage relatives or friends to run. Tell them you'll help with the campaign. Collect signatures for a referendum or recall. Often that can be a paying temporary job, with real income, but that often tempts the signature collector to do some fake signatures as well as turn in signatures from inelligible voters, if the payments are based on number of signatures.

Time contraints cause most people not to engage in most of the above strategies. What gets the vote out is more the presidential general election, pluse a real serious major difference in the two majority parties' presidential candidates. Midterms get less voters, because "only" the Senate, House and Governor races are on the ballot, and even only 1/3 of the Sentate is up for re-election every 2 years.

As a matter of sociology, Winston Churchill may have summed it up best. "Democracy is a very bad form of government, But it's better than all the alternatives."