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Chapter 7 - Participation and Voting

The United States has seen a tremendous change in the legal right to vote.When the Constitution was ratified, franchise was given to white male property owners only. It has been a long struggle to obtain suffrage for individuals who were held back by such considerations as property ownership, race, religion, literacy, the ability to pay poll taxes, and sex. With passage of the 15th Amendment, the direct election of Senators, the granting of voting rights to women in 1919, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, voting rights for Washington DC voters in 1961, voting rights for 18 year olds in 1971, and the Motor Voter Act of 1993, which allows for people to register to vote at the DMV, there are now close to 200 million eligable voters.

In spite of these advances in voting opportunities only about half of those eligable choose to vote.

This chapter will expore why people vote and why they stay at home on election day. In order to understand why people vote, we need to look at the demographic makeup of the American electorate. Factors which make people decide to cast their vote for a particular candidate can be classified in two major categories, sociological and psychological.

Sociological factors include -

income

level of education

occupation

gender

age

religious and ethnic background

region of the country where you live

the influence of the family

Psycological factors include -

party affiliation and identification

perception of a candidates policies and/or image

the feeling that your vote will make a statement

There are two basic types of political participation, conventional and unconventional. Describe a specific example of each.

a. conventional -

 

 

b. unconventional -

 

 

Cite an example of how class action suits can be used to change government policy. (pg. 226)

 

 

 

 

Identify the the "milestones" in the expansion of suffrage for each of the following groups.(pgs.229-231)

a. African-Americans -

 

 

 

 

b. women -

 

 

 

 

List and discuss four factors why voter turnout in the United States is low compared to other democracies.(pgs.241-243)

a.

 

 

b.

 

 

c.

 

 

d.

 

 

What are the two strongest predictors of a person's likelihood to participate in the political system ? (pg. 240-241) Why ? (pg. 248)

a.

 

b.