Participation and "Belonging"

Rousseau envisions his ideal society as one that is non-industrial and a small city-state. In this society every individual would be more or less equal. Additionally, each person would not only be required to vote, but they must vote in the best interests of society (collective interest), not for their own self interest. Only after doing this will the individual be able to accept a law from the government. Now the individual is "obedient to a law one prescribes to oneself." This participation increases the feeling of "belonging" in a community.

While I think Rousseau makes some very good points and I agree that when voting one should have the best interests of the nation at heart, this is far from reality. America is not a non-industrial city state, it is the 3rd largest country in the world in sheer size and 3rd largest by number of citizens. This presents a number of problems to the idea of a participatory democracy. When reading the articles of Brady, Verba and Schlozman (Beyond SES/The Big Tilt), it is evident that the citizens not participating in politics are lower in the socioeconomic ladder. The nonparticipants are less educated and thus also less wealthy. Brady et al. also stated that education influences political interest and in turn interest influences voting. So the less educated are also apathetic to voting.

However, I do not think it would be wise to urge all the nonparticipants to go out and start voting immediately. Schattschneider brought up the point that if you expand the voters, you " would bring in a new kind of voter into the community and change the balance." I think this is important to note. This "new voter" is part of the group that is less educated; I think it is vital that all participants are well informed before they go to the ballot box. In fact, Mill emphasized the importance of educating the electorate into "socially responsible voting." Mill and Bentham both wanted citizens to be interested in politics because it was in the citizen's best interest and education would help them see this.

Ultimately I think it would be beneficial to society and to the current non-voting populace themselves, if they began to vote. After all, as Schattschneider said, "Abstentation reflects the suppression of the options and alternatives that reflect the needs of the nonparticipants." With that being said, I strongly feel that these nonvoters should have better access to education and have a true desire to participate in the democratic process, otherwise the system is better off with individuals voting who know about the issues and can vote with the interests of all in mind.