Pageant As A Political Training Program

DATA AND METHODS
My goal is to determine whether or not pageantry can be treated as a political training program. The method I will use to measure and determine if pageants can be treated as political training programs will be a comparative case study. I will study two different pageant systems within two different countries to determine whether specific pageants can be considered a political training program, depending on if the system has certain platform and interview based components and scoring that value political knowledge and platform advocacy. I will also consider if other components of the pageant such as swimsuit or scoring that values outwardly appearance above all else and if this could be detrimental to the political socialization

I will use the binding contracts that each contestant signs and the paperwork required for each contestant that is available publicly to determine the pageant’s structure and scoring systems. If the pageant system’s website does not have this information I will use data from the national or international pageant system’s website, which would be the umbrella organization over the national pageant. For example, Miss Venezuela is a preliminary to Miss Universe. Therefore, if the Miss Venezuela website is not fruitful in providing details about the system and scoring, I will revert to the overarching pageant, Miss Universe, which has the same scoring system and structure. Moreover, I will use state competition websites and information within the Miss America Pageant system to seek all this information as well, as the Miss America Pageant is the overarching national pageant over the 51 state pageant systems within the United

The Miss New York Pageant, a state level preliminary within the Miss America Organization cites the platform component is one of their core values stating: “Making a difference through personal platforms is at our core. From lobbying on Senate floors to developing workshops in classrooms, we seek to enable women to expand their civic impact and reach (“Mission”). The website goes on to breakdown the organization’s mission statement: Style, Service, Scholarship, and Success by speaking on the pageant’s component of service:
“Miss America and the state titleholders use their stature to address community service organizations, business and civic leaders, the media and others about their platform issues. From collaborating with lawmakers to working in classrooms across the state, the Miss New York Organization titleholders champion a range of causes”