Forms+of+Participation+and+The+Causes+of+Participation

Most common from of participation: Voting Least common form of participation: Donating money to a political organization
 * Forms of Participation**

There is a lot of misreporting when it comes to voting. Another study by Verba and Nie showed that there are 6 different forms of participation
 * A study by Sidney Verba showed that 72% of Americans said they voted regularly, while only 56% of the voting population actually cast ballots since 1960.
 * Most of the misreporting comes from Young, low-income, less educated, nonwhite people. They are also more likely to misreport how they participate in other ways.
 * Most Americans believe that work, family, and church is more important than politics and participate more in those activities.
 * 22% of Americans are inactive and rarely vote. They usually have little education, low incomes, and young.
 * 11% are called **activists**, and are highly educated, have high incomes, and are middle aged. They are deeply involved in politics.
 * Voting Specialists are people who only vote, they are old but are uneducated and have low incomes
 * Campaigners vote and get involved in campaign activities. They are better educated than the average voter, identify themselves with a political party, and have a strong interest in the issues at hand.
 * Communalists are similar to Campaigners but their activities are more nonpartisan, unlike campaigners. They often deal with local problems and focus their energy on community issues
 * Parochial Participants do not vote and stay out of election campaigns and civic associations, but contact local officials for specific, but often personal, problems.

- No penalty for not voting therefore, less voting - Italy stamps government ID papers "DID NOT VOTE" - Less people think elections are important; thus, less people vote - Voter turnout due to three main reasons: party strength, automatic registration, and compulsory voting laws - Australia and other countries can fine citizens for not voting - With automatic registration, people could vote more than once and it opens the way to voter fraud - Americans are against government compulsion so compulsory voting would not work - Americans would not want to carry around government ID cards
 * Causes of Participation**

Education: The more educated you are the more active you are. IE: a college graduate is more active than a high school drop out. Age: Those over 45 have a higher amount of participation than those under 35. People will vote more when they have qualities that are makes policies easier and more gratifying to study. Religion: One who goes to church regularly will vote more than a person of the same class, sex, and education Church causes like-minded people to interact, increases organization skills, creates socialization and in creases awarness. Poorer less educated blacks will vote less than educated whites, but if placed on the same social, education and economic level, blacks will participate more.

Participation educations
 * nonvoter turnout rose from 7% in 1960 to 39% in 1996
 * the percentage of nonvoters who held white-collar jobs rose from 33%to 50% in the same period.
 * many of the better-off nonvoters might have voted Republican if they had gone to the poles
 * even if the turnout rate of blacks and Hispanics had increased, there wouldnt have been enough Democratic votes to affect the outcome of the 1984 and 1988 presidential elections

-Nonvoters are more likely to be poor, black or Hispanic, or uneducated -Democrats thinks that the higher turnout will help them -Republicans normally fear that the higher turnout will hurt them -Each party uses different strategies to get more nonvoter turnouts, but generally the opposite party does the same

-Turnout in voting has declined despite higher levels of schooling because of growing mistrust of the government by the people. -Since 1990 more and more people have said that they lacked confidence in political leaders. -Voter turnout is powerfully affected by the number of people who have registered to vote -Since 1970 federal law has prohibited residency requirements longer than 30 days for presidential elections -The greater youthfulness of the population along with the the growing number of African Americans and other minorities has pushed down the percentage of registered voters who vote -political parties today are no longer effective at mobilizing voters, ensuring they are registered and getting them to actually vote -The remaining impediments to registration exert some influence