The In's and Out's of Political Participation.
In America political participation is an important factor when discussing democratic governments. Americans use their participation as their voice. By definition, democratic governments depend on political participation by citizens in order to keep democracy alive. Therefore, when assuming that political participation does have an impact on political outcomes, one must come to the conclusion that it makes a large difference if some citizens are more active than others. More importantly, the large difference is mostly seen when some citizens are active, while others are not. When political participation is uneven as such, this brings unequal representation and democracy cannot be attained. For this reason, one must ask why do citizens participate? Rosenstone and Hansen believe that the reasons are both political and personal (RH pg.211). They state, "An abundance of political resources allows some citizens to bear the costs of involvement, and lack of resources prevents others. Powerful interests and identities motivate some citizens to seek the benefits of participation, and weaker interests and identities fail to stir others. Finally, candidates, parties, campaigns, interest groups, and social movements mobilize some citizens and neglect others, step up for their efforts at some times and scale them back at others. Their labors, when they occur, promote political participation, offsetting the costs and augmenting the social benefits of citizens" political activism." (RH pg.211) By explaining the points relating to participation, my goal is to demonstrate how I could pass a program that offers welfare benefits to individuals in the United States illegally. In order to do so I will focus on the mechanisms that increase and decrease inequalities. Moreover, I will use political campaign techniques that will allow me to target the right population in order to build a constituency that will support a controversial program as such.