Creating a Life Long Commitment to Politics

By Adam Weinberg

Democracy Matters On Civic Involvement:

Civic involvement is a prerequisite of democracy. We need people to run for office, to vote, to engage each other in political issues of the day, to work for the community-based groups that carry out many of the important functions of democratic policy, and to be active citizens in a myriad of other ways.

Democracy Matters is fully committed to engaging young people in a lifelong commitment to political engagement. We believe that Democracy Matters provides a vehicle for a lifelong entr?e into political involvement.

Misreading Voting Rates:
Clearly, it is distressing the young people are voting in abysmally low numbers. It is more distressing that these numbers are steadily dropping. In the 2000 elections, less than 18% of college age people voted. These rates have steadily decreased from 50% in 1972.

Yet, there is a tendency to interpret low voter turnout as evidence that young people do not care about social issues and are not civilly involved. Both of these are false premises.

First, young people do care about social issues. A report by MTV and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 75% of young people have strong opinions on gun control, health care, education, civil rights and other issues (www.kff.org). The Vote Smart Pew funded study found identical results (http://www.vote-smart.org).

Second, young people are already civicly involved. A Harvard Institute of Politics Study found that 60% of young people are active in volunteer organizations (http://www.hks.harvard.edu). In eight years, Americore has surpassed the Peace Corps in terms of participation. More young people of this generation have chosen to participate in Americore in 8 years, than have participated in the Peace Corps in the last 40 years.

Finally, colleges across the country are adding community service centers to their student affairs divisions to meet demand from incoming students who want opportunities to continue the civic work they started in high school.

Civic Versus Politically Involvement:
While 60% of college students are involved in voluntarism, only 16% are involved in political groups. When asked to explain this discrepancy, young people respond that they see very little reason to participate in politics. They believe the system is corrupt and that participation would make very little difference to either the issues or communities they care about. Hence, the Harvard Institute of Politics study also found that 64% of 18-24 year olds do not trust the Federal government to do the right thing. These figures increase to 74% when asked if politicians are motivated by selfish reasons.

Contrarily, they believe that community service matters. A wonderful study by the Ad Council (www.adcouncil.org) explains the thought process of young people as follows:

The current generation of young people are fiercely individualists and media savvy. They care deeply about their communities, but they also care about their time. They are too savvy for empty actions. Hence, they demand actions that matter. Civic involvement seems to matter. At the very least, they help individuals who need it. At the most, their actions partially address important social problems.

President Robert Corrigan of San Francisco State University recently stated, “Our students have good hearts, but many of them do not vote. They want a fairer and more just society, but many are paralyzed by cynicism about politics and politicians.”

Making Politics Part of Lifelong Habits: Why Democracy Matters
Getting young people involved in politics requires changing how they think about the political system. They do not participate because they believe the system is corrupt. Furthermore, nobody has ever shown them how to participate in a meaningful way. We need to help young people find meaningful forms of participation that will make the system less corrupt. Or stated differently, young people must believe in:

1. the issue

2. the importance of their participation

Campaign finance reform resonates with young people in each of these ways.

The issue matters. Money is the most corrupting feature in our current system of democracy. Campaign financing is the major way that money corrupts the system. If we change elections, we can then work on the myriad ofother issues that people care about.

The actions matter. In our 2000/2001 Democracy Matters projects, the energy level throughout the year remained high because a wide range of activities was available to the students. They educated and organized other students, ran petition drives, published newsletters, sponsored lectures, performed public theater, worked with local high school students, traveled to the state capitol to lobby, and wrote letters to their home town newspapers.

Campaign finance reform bridges the gap between students’ social concerns, personal needs, and the world of politics. It cuts across political ideologies and party affiliations. In each case, they found that there were a range of actions that had immediate effects on people.

While they see immediate benefits to their actions, they also see long term significance because we are winning on this issue. In five states, small groups of citizens have gotten initiatives placed on the state ballots to support reform and won. In cities across the country, people are passing legislation. Thus, students find that their participation matters. This is an issue that most people agree with, but rarely think about. By explaining to people the problem and the solutions, students can change the attitudes of others. . In doing so, they can create the needed momentum to pass local, state bills that matter which then will provide the stimulus for national legislation to clean up the corrupting effects on private money on politics..

Conclusion: Social Science Data on Political Involvement
Getting young people to vote or participate in politics is not a difficult task. But it does require getting them to take their first political action. That is why Democracy Matters adopts strategies on each campus that give students a range of ways to get involved. Students need to start with actions that fit their comfort levels. We know that once a student gets involved they will stay involved

In a 20 year follow up study of young people who were involved in civil rights movements, sociologist Doug McAdams found that students who took a direct political action in their college years stayed involved in politics for the rest of their lives. Getting active in college did not change their career selection, but it did dramatically alter what they did within those careers. For example: lawyers were more likely to become public interest lawyers or to work within their law firms to do more pro bono work. Doctors were more likely to use their flexible schedules to support and work for political causes and candidates.

Thus, we believe that the only way to create life long political involvement is to encourage young people take that first effective action. Democracy Matters supports such activism and strengthens the efforts to deepen our democracy.

Cited Studies and Websites For Future Research

1.”Project Vote Smart National Survey on Youth and Civic Engagement.” Project Vote Smart. Funded by Pew Charitable Trust. Available at www.vote-smart.org

2.”Attitudes Toward Politics and Public Service: A National Survey of College Undergraduates.” Harvard University. Institute of Politics. Available at http://www.hks.harvard.edu

3.”Engaging The Next Generation: How Non-Profits Can Reach Young Adults.” Ad Council. Available at www.adcouncil.org

4.”Youth, Voting, and the 200 Election.” Kaiser Family Foundation survey and MTV found “young adults have strong opinions on top campaign issues, but many still not planning to vote. Survey available at www.kff.org

5.Campus Compact: Higher Education In Service To The Nation. www.compact.org.

6.Doug McAdam. Freedom Summer (Oxford University Press, 1990).