Non Voting In America

As citizens of The United States of America, voting is arguably one of the most important political rights we hold. Progressively throughout history more and more people were allotted this right, until it became a freedom of every legal citizen. Although, looking at the statistics we see that non-voting in America hits drastic percentages with the numbers of participants declining each time. This historic issue is neglected to be seen as a problem, and is still over looked by some political scientists. In E.E Schattschneiders book, The Semi Sovereign People, he explains why this is in fact an issue. Schattschneider describes the concept of the “Scope of conflict” where the losing party is the one who calls for outside help. Where we look

So the way that pluralist saw it non-voting was not a big deal because everyone was still being represented. They believe that public policy stems from competition among groups, that diverse amounts of groups govern the United States as opposed to the people as a whole; different kinds of associations, global warm activists, and unions. Creating groups of citizens who have the same intentions to influence the laws they believe in. Pluralists felt as if the people who were not voting were already being represented by a group who voted on their behalf or that if they were not voting they must have been content with the state of the nation, and the current policies. Schattschneider argues, “The root of the problem of non voting is to be found in the way in which alternatives in American politics are defined. The way in which alternatives in American Politics are defined, the way in which issues get referred to the public, the scale of the public and organization, and above all by what issues are developed” (Schattschneider, 107).In the end everyone living in the same geographical region will be represented by one political candidate although they may all have very different political views. This leaves out a multitude of public citizens who are not involved in said groups

Then we have special interest groups who are adverse to some and may be exclusive. Some public interests groups who have their own areas of self-interest may want to appeal to the whole community and act/identify themselves with the public interest. This usually benefits the specific organization involved. There are organized and unorganized special interest groups. Those who are organized tend to be recognized by a National Association and are highly activity within their communities regarding their cause, while others may share a specific belief but fail to act upon it. This could be based on their level of education and or financial funds. Schattschneider states, “College graduated are far more apt to write their congressman than people in the lowest educational category are.” Here lies an uppercase bias. More importantly states that , “The flaw in the pluralists heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper-class accent.” Pressure politics only represents around 10 percent of people and excludes 90. Government driven policies set public disengagement by only putting issues on the table that an elite group can participate in. The voted become less and less meaningless each election. Non-participation is described by Schattschneider as an untapped goldmine. The