Lecture 10

• Political Science Session 10: Political Participation lecturer: dr Ammar Maleki 27 - 11 - 2023
• Political Parties: definition and functions, types of political party, party origins, social cleavages and political ideologies, party systems, party organization, party finance, and any question?
• Political participation: Who and Why?
• Forms of participation include conventional participation and unconventional participation.
• Women participation and gender quotas are important aspects of political participation.
• Citizen engagement in policy making can have various purposes and levels of participation.
• Political participation is defined as actions by individuals intended to influence government and the actions/policies it takes.
• Clicktivism is a form of political engagement involving online activities such as sharing tweets or trending hashtags or supporting online petitions.
• Idealism in political participation is the wish to bring about change.
• Party membership is a form of civic activism.
• Leader personality effect is a strategy where voters choose based on the personality of the leader.
• Protest participation is a form of civic activism.
• Abortion, gay marriage, gun control, and foreign affairs are issues that can be voted on according to personal beliefs.
• Prospective voting is a strategy where voters choose based on future performance.
• Retrospective voting is a strategy where voters choose based on past performance.
• Protest politics/activism is on the rise as a channel of political expression and mobilization.
• Transformation of Political Participation: from interest group to new social movement is facilitated by new digital technology and internet.
• Performance-based voting is a strategy where voters choose based on economic performance.
• Unconventional form of participation in protest politics/activism provides challenges to standard channels.
• Union density is the proportion of paid workers who are union members.
• Responsibility in political participation is the civic responsibility to respect for all efforts made over time for this right.
• Being heard in political participation is wanting to be counted and to play a role as part of potential solutions to the problems facing society.
• Mobilization in political participation is encouraged by parties and political leaders to oppose/support incumbents.
• Enjoyment in political participation is the engagement with the community or the excitement of the competition.
• Political participation is both an obligation and an exercise of personal development, according to Aristotle.
• Nonparticipation in politics is considered free-riding.
• Higher participation in politics is better for good governance.
• Limited participation in politics shows the health of the political system.
• Extra readings for the next session include Norris, P (2002) Democratic phoenix: Reinventing political activism, Cambridge University Press, and Arnstein, S.R. (1969) A ladder of citizen participation, Journal of the American Institute of planners, 35 (4), 216 - 224.
• The arguments for and against gender quotas are discussed on the website www.quotaproject.org/aboutQuotas.cfm.
• The assignment is worth 4% of the total grade and requires answering 16 questions.
• The next session will cover political outcomes and exam preparation, with readings including an article by Rothstein (2009) on political legitimacy, an article by Schmidt (2013) on democracy and legitimacy, the text by the UNDP on good governance, exam sample questions, and summaries for yourself.
• Globalization, secularization, industrial change, and populism are factors that may lead to a fall in religious voting.
• The assignment requires using APA style referencing, with WIKIPEDIA or SLIDES of the course not being considered as references.
• Compulsory reading for the next session includes McCormick, Hague & Harrop & (2022) Comparative Government and Politics, Bloomsbury.
• The most recent information of your countries, such as corruption index and rule of law, should be used when answering questions.
• The assignment requires submitting answers via Socrative in the room PoliticalScience by Friday Dec 1st @ 18:00.
• Conventional participation can be achieved through methods such as signing a petition to the parliament, taking part in peaceful demonstrations, civil disobedience, and joining boycotts.
• Reading on Public Participation is also recommended for the next session.
• Monitoring as a form of participation is a way to stay informed about the issues and the actions of the government.