Ask Americans to tell you whatever comes to mind when they think of the word “politics” and to no one’s surprise, a lot of what they say will be negative. But beyond the negative association with politics, there is another pattern less often noted yet perhaps just as significant for democracy in America: when most Americans think of politics they think of national politics, and particularly presidential politics – not state politics, not county politics, not municipal politics.
Ask Americans whether they vote, and many will claim they vote always or most of the time. Then ask those supposedly avid voters whether they vote only in presidential election years. If they are honest, many will admit that they will vote only when there is a presidential election, and this does not mean that they vote for all offices down the ballot. Many voters simply do not know who their U.S. Representative or U.S. Senators are, let alone where they stand, let alone who their state, county, or municipal representatives are, or what they do.
Of course, none of this is new to political scientists, or anyone who pays attention to statistics on voter turnout and political knowledge. But there are political statistics, and then there is political culture. Political culture can help explain the statistics.
For a couple of years now, I have been asking the above questions of young Americans as part of a book I am writing on how they think about politics, community and citizenship. What is striking is not just the turnout and knowledge statistics, but the political imagination these kinds of questions reveal. What questions like these indicate is that when Americans are prompted to think about politics, the vast majority of democracy in America – the enormous and enormously consequential apparatus of government below the U.S. president – does not even occur to them. And when prompted to think about that vast majority of democracy, many Americans not only know little about it, but refer to it, often dismissively, as “local politics.” The contrast with Alexis de Tocqueville’s account of the 19th century American citizen proudly and busily engaged in local government is striking.
Here are a few facts to give a sense of the magnitude of that democracy so many contemporary Americans dismiss or simply don’t see:
There is just one federal government, but there are 50 state governments, 3,034 county governments, 35, 933 city, town and village governments, and 13,506 school districts across the United States. That’s 1 federal government, and 52,523 “local” governments.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, our federal government employs 4.9 million people, including full-time, part-time, and full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, civilian and military. In contrast, our fifty state governments employ nearly double that number: 9.5 million people. Our municipal governments employ over five times the federal number: 26.4 million people. That’s 5 million employed at the federal level, and 36 million at the “local” level.
Dogmatic conservatives, of course, cringe at so much government. They see nothing but inefficiency, failure, and corruption. I see opportunity, whether for good or bad, for engaged democracy or unaccountable bureaucracy.
Most of American government need not be invisible to Americans. I am sure readers of this blog can all quite easily imagine ways to make state, county and municipal government more salient in the minds and lives of Americans. Clearly, news media, as one of the major shapers of Americans’ political imaginations, have a large role to play, though the decline of newspapers and the intensifying profit focus do not bode well for news media as engines of political education. But there are other possibilities.
Universities and colleges can, to a growing extent are, and should play a larger role in the political education of American citizens. Stetson University, like a growing number of schools across the country, has over the last two decades made values like engaged citizenship central to its educational mission. One concrete way to nurture engaged citizenship among students is by institutionalizing voting in universities and colleges.
When it comes to voting, many college students are in a peculiar and politically consequential situation. More and more young Americans are going to college, and many go away to college, near or far. This poses a problem at election time. Most elections occur while students are in school. If they are registered to vote, they often register back at their parents’ homes. This requires students either to go home to vote, or to learn how to get an absentee ballot, order it, fill it out, and return it in time. For many first time voters – especially busy college students – each of these steps lowers the probability that they will vote. Young Americans remain the least likely to vote, compared with older age groups. Even in the 2008 election, widely supposed to have mobilized young voters, half failed to vote. Turnout among 18 to 24 year olds was 49%, just two percent more than in 2004, and lower than all older age groups. As a result, college students, as a population with distinct political interests, are largely impotent and invisible to politicians seeking election or re-election (except for the few avid students candidates can recruit to volunteer or intern for their campaigns).
Most institutions of higher education still do little or nothing to change this, yet they could do so much. Americans’ college years constitute an opportune period to nurture engaged citizenship, especially if colleges and universities make voter registration routine, and local to national elections campus events. Here at Stetson, I and a few students this year have formed an organization named Stetson Votes to begin the process of institutionalizing voting on campus. Among other things, Stetson Votes is: (1) registering students to vote at the school cafeteria, in classrooms and dorms, and encouraging them to register locally; (2) establishing voter information stations on campus, including registration forms, absentee ballot applications, and instructions; and (3) identifying bright, responsible, and committed students to serve on city and county policy advisory committees, and possibly even to run for local public office.
(For those interested in institutionalizing voting on their own campuses, two Stetson Votes leaflets may be of use as models: “Six Reasons Why Stetson Students Should Vote in DeLand,” and “Fifteen Ways ‘Local’ Government Affects Students’ Lives.”)
College students, as individuals, may be only in their college town for four years or so, but college students, as a group, are, for better or worse, permanent and pervasive fixtures in many towns and cities throughout the United States. Local communities, students, colleges and universities all stand to benefit when students are responsibly engaged in local government. Communities can gain research and countless volunteer hours. Schools can strengthen relationships with their communities. Students can learn what it means to be an engaged citizen, and in so doing, learn more about what they want to do and who they want to be.
As Tocqueville remarked long ago, local governments are schools of democratic freedom, sowing the seeds of engaged citizenship. In an age of political disengagement, it’s high time Americans rediscovered local government. In this domain, American colleges and universities can do much to move our nation forward.
3 Comments
American colleges and universities may very well have the potential to move the country towards greater political engagement with voting programs such as “Stetson Votes.” By making students across the nation aware of the significance of their votes, we could only hope that they decide on mobilizing others to engage in politics. However, after informing students the importance of performing their right to vote and getting them registered, do students truly think “politics,” or simply exercise an individual right that they realize they have? More importantly, how can many students overcome the factor of individualism, which Benjamin Barber and Robert Bellah have revealed to be so heavily present in societies these days? The individual today seems more focused on personal accomplishments rather than participating in politics, or if they do participate in any way, it tends to be more “civic” than “political.” Take for instance the many organizations across colleges and universities focused on “giving back” to communities, whether it is to feed the homeless or rescue abandoned pets. Such organizations outnumber those that attempt to mobilize political participation, and allow the young individuals to choose what they believe to be important to them personally, rather than focusing more on what is important to see happen in their respective governments. I do not believe institutionalizing voting in universities stirs much political thought in students, they are merely learning to exercise their right to vote, and don’t we want more than that? Don’t we want students to vote for change, policies, or for the sake of their communities? I attempted to institutionalize voting for students who were 18 in the high school I attended, and I still recall the main reason that those who registered wanted to vote was not to voice their mind, their heart, and to vote for the future, but merely because it’s “something to do when I turn 18.” I continue to hear that reason amongst many of my college peers. Institutionalizing voting in colleges and universities may only target a minority of students who actually become politically engaged. There has to be a way to adapt to the present-day changes in political participation and reach out to a greater majority, while at the same time overcoming the threat of individualism. We could only hope that those who do become seriously engaged citizens can mobilize others and help recreate neighborhood associations across the nation for greater political engagement once they step outside the realm of college life. Citizens should participate in their politics not just because they are legally entitled to, but because they truly want to be active citizens.
I recognize the point of this piece as the call for young Americans to vote and get involved. After reading chapters from Cliff Zukin et all’s work, A New Engagement?, I would assert that voting is not the only avenue of engagement to focus on because young Americans are involved in other channels that have just as much civic worth as voting. I would also like to use some of their arguments to aid other assertions made in this article. As Zukin et all note, “the trend in declining turnout among the young…can be interpreted as not a rejection of public life but a shift in the types of participation in which these citizens are engaging” (9). An important fact presented in this work was the percentage of young Americans who participated in volunteer activity on a regular basis, which was nearly equal to the percentage of their parents (7). Furthermore, the authors also present statistics that reveals youth engagement is equal to that of their elders in respect to civic engagement, but not political engagement. While I know political engagement is the focus of this online piece, something put forth by Zukin’s work struck me in regards to the importance of the balance between civic and political engagement. The authors establish that they “acknowledge the necessity and value of diverse participation, while remaining cognizant that civic engagement can not substitute for political engagement or vice versa” (9). Because of this, I concede that the idea of intensely focusing on increasing the rate of young American’s voter turnout as an important initiative, so I would like to congratulate Dr. Lachelier and the Stetson Votes organization for working towards increasing political engagement among local college students. Beyond that, I think Zufkin et all would also admire the organization’s efforts to get students involved in other avenues of local government as well. Again, I would also like to stress the importance of recognizing the other channels of involvement, like writing letters to public officials and community service organizations. As someone who is appalled by my peers lack of interest in voting, through my class readings I am finding that filling out a ballot is not the only way to be a good citizen.
I hate to take the cynical role in responding to this very well-written and well-thought out piece but it’s hard not to. The Stetson Votes organization is a commendable idea, but it needs to be carried out farther. I haven’t seen any activity from the organization since the 2008 election. While I realize that was a pivotal time for registration, as Dr. Lachelier pointed out, politics goes beyond the Presidential Elections. I wonder what the poll results would be of those who actually voted even after registering with Stetson Votes? Would we still be disappointed by the low turnout of the apathetic college student? Quite possibly.
In my humble opinion the two keys to civic engagement in terms of voting in Presidential elections and beyond are education and accessibility. First of all, college students need to know what is going on in their community. Perhaps, during the week of elections, whether it be local or beyond, there can be advertisements via organizations like Stetson Votes that provide short blurbs on what’s going on in the local government. As Dr. Nylen pointed out in his article, “The Promise of Local Government as a School of Democracy (Part 2) The City of DeLand, Florida”, people usually get involved when they’re upset. By educating the people on what’s going, it may ruffle a few feathers and produce some kind of incentive to vote or get involved.
Secondly, accessibility is pivotal to voter turnout especially in younger people. To put it plainly, the idea of standing in line to vote is dreadful. There’s no immediate result and it’s a gamble on whether or not your candidate will even win so in the end it could be time wasted. This isn’t necessarily my view, but I know it to be a view of my peers. Some will argue, voting is accessible! It’s right down the street at the courthouse, but the truth of the matter is that until it’s on the doorstep and in their face with very little inconvenience posed at all, voter turnout will be low. The establishment of voting on school campuses may seem far fetched now but I think it’s necessary to the civic engagement of younger Americans in terms of voting.
Stetson Votes is absolutely a step in the right direction and can be used as a beacon for other schools to follow. It is this sort of organization that should push for voter education and accessibility to enhance voter turnout of college students, at the local, state and federal levels.
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