GVPT 170 Lecture 8: 8-Political-Participation

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Government and Politics
• Course: GVPT 170
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Especially as related to race, gender, & ethnicity. There are problems with relying on polls . But public opinion polling can be very informative when done carefully! Key feature of all political participation is: Long history of unconventional participation in american politics. Unconventional actions can bring change (but not always) How the structure of government can affect types of political participation. Can citizens affect their government within the institutions, or do they have to go outside. Goal of democratic institutions is to channel citizen activity into conventional forms of participation. Paradox of voting as applied to non-voting participation. Objectively the probability of your participation affecting the outcome is very low, but participation is costly. Information is costly to obtain and isn"t very valuable because of low probability that it will affect outcome. Why? (1) individual differences, (2) social networks and mobilization. Efficacy (or the belief that you can make a difference)