Participation

• The WSA
• Pallic con
• Vote for Participation in the USA Structure sheet
• How citizens in the world power you have studied can participate in politics

  1. Voting in elections

  2. Election campaigning

  3. Participating in interest/pressure groups
• Democracy


  Meaning citizens can vote for Senators and mayors
• Elected positions in the USA

  • Over 1 million
• Election campaigning


  Political parties will try to get their message out through many means such as email, advertising etc.
• 2020 election campaign


  • Joe Biden raised $642 million
• Interest/pressure groups


  Groups of people who strongly believe in a cause and will back candidates and causes with funding and media advertising
• National Rifle Association


  • Set up in 1871, has more than 6 million members
• Obstacles to voter registration


  • Voter ID laws
  • Convicted criminals unable to vote
  • Voter fatigue
  • Underrepresentation
• Voter registration requirements


  1. 4 weeks before an election in many US states, to reduce fraud. However this can mean some citizens don't have the required ID
• In 2020, there were 168.81 million people registered to vote in the USA, out of a population of 329.5 million
• Some US states have "exact match" voter ID systems which can suspend voting rights if ID documents don't exactly match
• In 2013, Wyoming passed a law to automatically restore voting rights 5 years after completing a criminal sentence
• 59% of Americans feel exhausted by the political process
• In the USA, the most economically disadvantaged and ethnic minorities are less likely to participate in the political process
• In 2019, 191 million citizens voted for Democrats in the USA