Choose from the book - Essay Example

The two writers are Steven Schier and Theda skocpol. According to (Schier 124) the reason for political indifference and hence the low voter turnout is due to activating American citizens into political rather than mobilisation as it was previously done. This has led to emergence of progressive movements that have replaced the power that political parties had. These progressive movements are very selective and do not activate all American citizens politically, what they do is select a small group based on their political interest and focus on them.

This excludes a large number of American voters from the electoral and political process and therefore most of them have lost interest in being part of elections hence the low voter turnout. According to (Schier 134-150) the earlier 1970s political parties gained influence by mobilising the support of all American voters. This was through carrying out extensive campaigns to appeal to the American people, mass live broadcasting. This method of political mobilisation was extremely effective as it included all Americans and was in no way selective or choosy.

This built a sense of belonging among most American citizens and encouraged them to take part in their electoral process. This explains the high voter turnout then. This is no longer the situation; the new era is more focused on lobbying interest groups such high earning American citizens, well educated American citizens and those with high incomes. This has isolated most American citizens who do not fall under this category and most no longer vote. In order to resolve this prevailing situation there is need to restore power back to the political parties as it was in the early 1970s instead of living the whole political process in the hands of interest and lobbying groups (Skier 140-150) This will put control of the election process back to political parties who instead of activation should resort to once again mobilising the entire American population.

This will invite the isolated American population to get involved in the electoral and political system. Although this is a difficult task to achieve, it will completely change the political environment and without a doubt increase voter turnout. I agree with some of Schier’s sentiments as to why there is poor voter turnout in America this is because there is indeed a power shift in American politics as more control is held by the interest groups other than the political parties especially in the election process.

I also agree with his commendations to improve the prevailing situation by bringing back mobilisation in place of activation as a political tactic during the election period. I however disagree with Schier when he says that Americans have been isolated from the election process in terms of education level and the level of income. This is because a more than before the election process is fully covered in the media and even social networks. We cannot rationally argue that any American is unaware about the elections due to isolation and give that as a reason for low voter turnout.

This is because as much as most Americans may not be involved firsthand in the elections a majority if not all Americans are very aware of the political situation and most times choosing to participate in voting has nothing to do with whether they were mobilised or not. I find Theda Skocpol’s arguments in his book Diminished democracy: From membership to management in American