Political Participation in Modern Democracies
Political Participation in Representative Democracy
The original meaning of the word participation in Latin was to take part in a deal and communicate something. Political participation refers to taking part in the election of rulers. It is a process by which political power is allocated and distributed by the public, and through which the electoral process voluntarily communicates policy preferences from citizens to politicians and the general public.
Forms of Political Participation
Political participation primarily involves engagement in elections, which are centrally important to liberal democracy, as well as broader electoral politics. Liberal democracies are political systems in which people participate in the election of rulers. VallBosh has stated that elections perform three crucial functions in these democracies: representation, government production, and government legitimacy. The production of government refers to the character of a plebiscite election as a mechanism of approval or disapproval of government and its policies. The production of legitimacy is closely linked to the production of government; the government is in a position to present itself as the legitimate holder of power. All three functions can be described in broad strokes as the same phenomenon: bridging the distance between rulers and ruled through the authorization of the latter to the former.
Political participation is very important for liberal democracies because it helps close the gap between representatives and the represented.
Participation in the election of rulers is the main feature of contemporary political participation. The study of how such participation is exercised makes up some of the key research areas. Berelson became famous in the 1950s in the U.S. by claiming that a low turnout is sufficient to meet the routine needs of democracy, and even greater participation could lead to the breakdown of system stability.
Many others, including Carole Pateman, argued that the functioning of liberal democracy requires a participatory culture. If this does not occur, the system eventually becomes corrupt. Pateman’s critique of Berelson’s theory highlighted the correlation between political and social status and participation. Consequently, those who are permanently disadvantaged often exhibit higher levels of apathy. The political participation in contemporary democracies lacks the grandiose features of the exercise of citizenship in ancient Athens. Political participation is no longer the direct ‘government of the people’ as it was then; it is now largely exercised through civil society. The typology of this involvement includes:
- Discussion of daily politics and monitoring of political events
- Participation in election campaigns
- Voting
- Applying pressure on political representatives
- Membership in groups and associations
- Participation in legal demonstrations, civil disobedience
- Revolt
Motivations for Political Participation
These refer to what impels people to participate politically. Political efficacy is the citizen’s perception of their ability to influence policy. A high perception of efficacy will be accompanied by a high turnout, and vice versa. Other motivations for participation are unrelated to direct personal benefits. Still others are stimulated by the psychological mechanism called partisan identification, which refers to people being psychologically linked to their support for a party and assuming its identity as their own. Political representation in liberal democracy refers to the fact that leaders are authorized to rule through the electoral contest. Political representation has important political consequences. The political participation of citizens refers mainly to exercising voting rights as a mechanism that allows citizens to approve or disapprove, judge, and hold the government accountable, thereby legitimizing its political responsibilities.