POLS 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Party System, Social Capital, Socioeconomic Status
12 Mar 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Political participation is any action that is aimed at changing or supporting government policies or officials. Conventional (common) participation is any culturally acceptable political activity that communicates preferences through established institutions. Some types of conventional participation: voting, sending in letters to the editor, calling a representor, singing petitions. Unconventional (uncommon) participation is any political activity that takes place outside of established institutions and challenges cultural norms. Some types of unconventional participation: protesting, boycotting, marches, assassination. Voting is only beneficial if your vote impacts the outcome: Impact means that your vote is a deciding vote. There is a small probability of your vote mattering. Voting doesn"t require a lot of participation to have an outcome. According to this theory, people will only vote if the benefits of voting outweigh the costs. R = b * c > 0 (b > c) R = p(b) c + d. B is the utility gain from getting your preferred outcome.
