The Democracy Of The United States Government - 1246 Words

Randy Rivas Political Science 1 O’Regan Fall 2015 Voter Turnout In a democracy citizens are permitted to have a significant amount of influence on government through the election of government officials. This is known as Direct Democracy, which means that the citizens play a significant role on the laws and policies of the land. Although the liberty of voting is available, why is the voter turnout so low? Many other countries have a much larger vote turnout than the United States. The reason for this varies; some major points would be the Demographics, voting laws, and political favoritism/corruption that affect the voter turnout. When the people vote for a public figure they expect them to succumb to the will of the people, and not big†¦show more content†¦Those who campaign have a hard time reaching out to the young community. Most college students do not own a television set, therefore are not well aware of current political affairs. In part many young Americans feel that their vote does not matter, or that whatever the y must vote for doesn’t interest or affect them in any way. Older age groups that vote tend to be more educated on politics, because they tend to be much better educated. Ones views on politics can vary depending on the type of environment you grew up in. The agents of socialization in one’s life play a big role on determining how one feels towards politics. Parental views on politics influence their children’s future views on politics greatly. Ethnicity and socio-economic status have a huge impact on the voter turnout. Political knowledge and perception is no different than the area you live in or the quality of food you eat, it’s all based on wealth and social status. Those who make enough money to barely survive tend to have little to no knowledge on politics. These groups tend to be minority groups. The vast majority of groups that tend to vote are strictly but not definitively well educated white families. Although this is not always the case, certai n ethnic groups and minority groups vote when they have interest in what they are voting for. For example, in the 2012 election with Obama, for the first time ever the overall black voter turnout exceeded that of the white voter turnout, the idea of