The Value of Participation in Self-Government

Since the beginning of democracy, it has been argued whether a direct involvement or representative involvement would be more beneficial. It was believed that it would be unreasonable to have a direct democracy because not everyone is going to be able to vote for every issue and not everyone is educated enough to make the "correct" political decision, and thus came the rise of representative involvement.

While having society as a whole decide and vote on every issue may be time consuming and unreasonable, it's not true that people are incapable of making political decisions. In fact, some political philosophers have identified three things that factor into making a political decision: factual information about the effects of each option, information about what people prefer, and questions of moral principle. These philosophers argued that there is no proof that the citizens would be worse at making political decisions than elected officials. In fact, elected politicians rely on experts, meaning they do not have any special knowledge or expertise that allows them to do their job more effectively.

One problem set forth was that the average citizen was not very knowledgeable or interested in politics. However, according to ushistory.org, an important and common characteristic among voters is education. Typically, the higher the education level that an individual has, the more likely they are to vote. This could possibly be due to the fact that they may be able to better understand more complex political issues.

I believe that participating in self-government is important because it is one of the most significant rights given to us by the founding fathers. If our government is really the "government by the people" then the people need to be heard in full. Minorities especially need to participate because many are underrepresented in voter turnout when they may have the most at stake in a given situation. We were given this right to have a say in how our government is run, and yet we have taken advantage of the situation as voter turnout is on the decline.

On the other hand, there are ways other than voting in which you can participate in government. Individuals may write to their local officials, work for a candidate that is running for office, or propose ideas to the school board or their city council. Participation does not just have to be on a federal level, even participating on the state and local levels can make a difference, if not for the entire country, definitely for your city.

Sources
Political Philosophy Class Notes- Dr. Amy MacArthur
https://www.ushistory.org/gov/4d.asp