When looking at the requirements of the citizen to have a working democracy we must look past the written rules and laws. We must look towards the duties that are needed by a democracy of its citizens that are not written and codified. There are many things that are required of citizens such as the payment of taxes, the following of recognized laws, and many other established requirements. One thing that is not required from the citizen is that of being an informed and intelligent voter and citizen. It is not obligatory for you to know the impacts or nuances of what your vote will do. The act of voting is not even required in some countries. You are allowed to vote however you choose to vote, whether you are informed on the issue or candidate
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By having a system that citizens are highly involved and invested you create a system of accountability with elected representatives. A responsive democracy is ideal since it allows for the people of the nation to be properly represented and for their voice to be listened to. We do still have insulation from capricious public opinion. Despite the public opinion being labeled as stable and slowly changing it can suddenly change with outside stimulus (Page and Shapiro, 1992). The key to having a highly motivated and involved electorate is to increase the overall knowledge of the electorate in regards to political issues, foreign and domestic. This does not mean having dramatic increases across the board of political knowledge but just increasing the averages and raising the lowest numbers. While that is an idealistic view it is achievable if a system is created to encourage more political knowledge. Political knowledge is available to those who are already privileged and reap the majority of benefits in regards to the current system. Those people being older, well-educated, wealthy, white males. There are major knowledge gaps in political knowledge in regards to groups that do not fall into the above description. (Delli Carpini, 2000). With women, people of color, poor citizens, un-educated and other minority …show more content…
This creates a knowledge gap when you only view issues from one side of the aisle and rarely if ever see a dissenting opinion. To have a truly broad knowledge of politics, you must view issues from both sides. This does not require that you agree with the other side, however, being aware of and taking into consideration the other side’s argument is always helpful in deliberation. One change that the American people can make in regards to increasing their political knowledge is their decision on the type of media consumption they choose to partake in. While there are some people who will choose to remove themselves completely from politics and do not absorb political media. The majority of people should focus on attempting to consume at least some form of news or political media instead of only viewing entertainment. Those who view entertainment more often are more likely to have a political knowledge gap than those who view political news regularly (Prior, 2005). This is an issue that comes down to motivation and not a lack of resources available. Citizens must make the effort to learn about the political issues and lower the knowledge gaps between the educated and uneducated. However, relating back to my earlier point the citizens must also focus on not self-filtering and selectively choosing
By having a system that citizens are highly involved and invested you create a system of accountability with elected representatives. A responsive democracy is ideal since it allows for the people of the nation to be properly represented and for their voice to be listened to. We do still have insulation from capricious public opinion. Despite the public opinion being labeled as stable and slowly changing it can suddenly change with outside stimulus (Page and Shapiro, 1992). The key to having a highly motivated and involved electorate is to increase the overall knowledge of the electorate in regards to political issues, foreign and domestic. This does not mean having dramatic increases across the board of political knowledge but just increasing the averages and raising the lowest numbers. While that is an idealistic view it is achievable if a system is created to encourage more political knowledge. Political knowledge is available to those who are already privileged and reap the majority of benefits in regards to the current system. Those people being older, well-educated, wealthy, white males. There are major knowledge gaps in political knowledge in regards to groups that do not fall into the above description. (Delli Carpini, 2000). With women, people of color, poor citizens, un-educated and other minority …show more content…
This creates a knowledge gap when you only view issues from one side of the aisle and rarely if ever see a dissenting opinion. To have a truly broad knowledge of politics, you must view issues from both sides. This does not require that you agree with the other side, however, being aware of and taking into consideration the other side’s argument is always helpful in deliberation. One change that the American people can make in regards to increasing their political knowledge is their decision on the type of media consumption they choose to partake in. While there are some people who will choose to remove themselves completely from politics and do not absorb political media. The majority of people should focus on attempting to consume at least some form of news or political media instead of only viewing entertainment. Those who view entertainment more often are more likely to have a political knowledge gap than those who view political news regularly (Prior, 2005). This is an issue that comes down to motivation and not a lack of resources available. Citizens must make the effort to learn about the political issues and lower the knowledge gaps between the educated and uneducated. However, relating back to my earlier point the citizens must also focus on not self-filtering and selectively choosing