This course examines political participation in the United States. Participation is crucial to democracy, yet often only a minority of citizens engage in the most basic form of political participation -- voting. Since voting remains the primary form of participation, we will focus on voting, campaigns and elections. We will study the nature of campaigns, particularly the roles of the mass media and political parties, and their effects on individual attitudes and political participation. In addition, we will examine how demographics, including gender, race, education, and socioeconomic status, influence an individual's decision to turn out to vote, and an individual's vote choice.

This course will address voter turnout and vote choice in various elections, namely presidential, congressional, state and local elections. We will examine the influence of the above mentioned factors (media, parties, attitudes, demographics) by analyzing recent elections including the 1998 congressional elections. Finally, we will consider alternative types of participation including interest group membership and campaign activity, and we will discuss and compare the efficacy of voting and other types of political participation in terms of democratic governance.