e extent to which voters use their rights to vote and to take part in public life. It is healthy if memberships of political parties are large and active, and if attendance at political rallies is high, and so on. Some nations believe that it is essential to take part in political life, and that the state should encourage, and even oblige them to do so. For example, some countries consider that it is vital to ensure that a high proportion of eligible voters cast their ballots. Accordingly, they make voting compulsory, as in Australia. An alternative view suggests that it does not matter whether citizens actually participate in politics, but it is vital that they should have the right to do so, irrespective of whether they choose to use it. This is perhaps the case in the United States, where voter turnout hovers around an astounding fifty percent, which is lowest among all industrialized democracies (Roskin 113.) In a democracy, a high priority is typically associated with voting (on a national scale), as a way for people to influence policy makers. By electing officials to represent their opinions, citizens are actively partaking in policy making. Citizens choose between candidates competing for the authority to make public policy. Because of America’s democratic government, people declare their preferences for and against officials and policies through elections, and the distribution of their votes is a representation of their conflicts on selected political matters. And with such important political matters affecting the every day lives of Americans, why is political participation so low in our country? If voting is the fundamental method of political expression in our representative democracy, why do so many Americans take their democratic right for granted?While nearly half of the voting population does not engage in civic participation, there is concrete evidence on who is actually participating. And these numbers a...
