Politics in the United States

1. American Politics

When describing a nation’s politics, we should first look at the term “politics.” We may associate the term with freedom, power, corruption, or rhetoric. Political science looks at politics as the interaction between citizens and their government. Sociology studies politics as a means to understand the underlying social norms and values of a group. A society’s political structure and practices provide insight into the distribution of power and wealth, as well as larger philosophical and cultural beliefs.

EXAMPLE

A cursory sociological analysis of U.S. politics might suggest that Americans' desire to promote equality and democracy on a theoretical level is at odds with the nation’s real-life capitalist orientation.

Lincoln's famous phrase “of the people, by the people, for the people” is at the heart of the U.S. system and sums up its most essential aspect: that citizens willingly and freely elect representatives they believe will look out for their best interests.

Although many Americans take free elections for granted, it is a vital foundation of any democracy. When the U.S. government was formed, however, all women and all people of color were denied the right to vote. Each of these groups struggled to secure the same suffrage rights as their white male counterparts, yet this history fails to inspire some Americans to show up at the polls and cast their ballots. Many people don’t see a relationship between their voting and changes happening in society. Problems with the democratic process, including limited voter turnout, require us to more closely examine complex social issues that influence political participation.

2. Citizen Engagement

Voter participation is essential to the success of the U.S. political system. Although many Americans are quick to complain about laws and political leadership, in any given election year roughly half the population does not vote. Some years have seen even lower turnouts.

EXAMPLE

In 2010, a midterm election year, only around 40% of registered voters participated in the electoral process. In 2012 and 2016 (presidential election years, which always see the highest turnout), voter turnout was around 61%.

Poor turnout can skew election results, particularly if one age or socioeconomic group is more diligent in its efforts to make it to the polls. But high voter turnout can change the makeup of the government so that politicians who care can get lasting changes passed for those without power.

EXAMPLE

The 2020 election saw record voter turnout. 67% of voters voted for the presidency and other national offices, which was over 17 million more people voting than in 2016, despite the challenges of voting during the pandemic.

As a general rule, higher voter turnout tends to lead to wins for whichever party or politician appeals most to people of color and to the poor. This is because these populations have the most difficulty utilizing their voting rights, whether through intentional voter intimidation, through laws designed to limit poll access, or through not having time off from work to go to the polls. When it is difficult to vote, the people who have the easiest time voting—white people, wealthy people, and retirees—will still vote, and the politicians whose policies and ideologies favor these groups will usually win. When it is easier to vote, and turnout is higher, the difference is usually made up by people of color and poor people, and their favored candidates are likelier to win.

Certain voting advocacy groups work to improve turnout. Rock the Vote, for example, targets and reaches out to America’s youngest potential voters to educate and equip them to share their voice at the polls. Public service promos from celebrity musicians support their cause. Native Vote is an organization that strives to inform Native Americans about upcoming elections and encourages their participation. America’s Hispanic population is reached out to by the National Council of La Raza, which strives to improve voter turnout among the Latino population. William Frey, author of Diversity Explosion, points out that Hispanics, Asians, and multiracial populations are expected to double in the next forty years.

think about it

What kind of impact do you think those changing demographics will have on election outcomes?

3. Voting Rights

Although recent records have shown more minorities voting now than ever before, this trend is still fairly new. Historically, African Americans and other minorities have been underrepresented at the polls. Black men were not allowed to vote at all until after the Civil War, and Black women gained the right to vote along with other women only with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. For years, African Americans who were brave enough to vote were discouraged by discriminatory legislation, passed in many southern states, which required poll taxes and literacy tests of prospective voters. Literacy tests were not outlawed until 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

The 1960s saw other important reforms in U.S. voting. Shortly before the Voting Rights Act was passed, the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case Reynolds v. Sims changed the nature of elections. This landmark decision reaffirmed the notion of “one person, one vote,” a concept holding that all people’s votes should be counted equally. Before this decision, unequal distributions of population enabled small groups of people in sparsely populated rural areas to have as much voting power as the denser populations of urban areas. After Reynolds v. Sims, districts were redrawn so that they would include equal numbers of voters.

Unfortunately, in June 2013 the Supreme Court repealed several important aspects of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, ruling that southern states no longer need the stricter scrutiny that was once required to prohibit racial discrimination in voting practices in the South. Following this decision, several states moved forward with voter identification laws that had previously been banned by federal courts. Officials in Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama claim that new identification (ID) laws are needed to reduce voter fraud, but contemporary voter identification laws are trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. According to the Department of Justice, only twenty-six voters, of 197 million voters in federal elections, were found guilty of voter fraud between 2002 and 2005.

Opponents further note that new voter ID laws disproportionately affect minorities and the poor, potentially prohibiting them from exercising their right to vote. In fact, discouraging people from voting has long lasting effects. Most voting behavior and learning the importance of voting is done at home during childhood.

think about it

Some parents take their children with them when they vote, in order to share the civic ceremony of voting. Some parents don't discuss their voting activities with their children. Others don't vote at all, whether because they are unable to vote or because they don't wish to. What impact do you think these different voting choices by parents might have on their children?

Evidence suggests that legal protection of voting rights does not directly translate into equal voting power. Relative to their presence in the U.S. population, women and racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the U.S. Congress. White males still dominate both houses.

EXAMPLE

Only fifty Black women have ever served in Congress, and only twenty-three Hispanic women and sixteen Asian and Pacific Islander women. By contrast, nearly 10,000 white men have served in Congress.

4. Class and Voting

Like race and ethnicity, social class also has influenced voting practices. Voting rates among lower-educated, lower-paid workers are lower than for people with higher socioeconomic status. This fosters a system in which people with more power and access to resources have the means to perpetuate their power.

Several explanations have been offered to account for this difference. Workers in low-paying service jobs might find it harder to get to the polls because they lack flexibility in their work hours and quality daycare to look after children while they vote. Because a larger share of racial and ethnic minorities are employed in such positions, social class may be linked to race and ethnicity, thus further influencing voting rates. New requirements for specific types of voter identification in some states are likely to compound these issues, because it may take additional time away from work, as well as additional child care or transportation, for voters to get the needed IDs.

The impact on minorities and the impoverished may cause a further decrease in voter participation. Attitudes play a role as well. Some poor people and minorities doubt their vote will count or voice will be heard, because they have seen no evidence of their political power in their communities. Others don’t believe that candidates are really concerned about them and don’t know their experiences and needs. Some believe that what they already have is all they can achieve—especially among immigrants who came from autocratic and non-democratic countries of origin.

As suggested earlier, money can carry a lot of influence in U.S. democracy. But there are other means to make one’s voice heard. Free speech can be influential, and people can participate in the democratic system through volunteering with political advocacy groups, writing to elected officials, sharing views in a public forum such as a blog or letter to the editor, forming or joining cause-related political organizations and interest groups, participating in public demonstrations, and even running for a local office.

watch

In the following Sophia Talks video, you’ll learn more about how we, as individuals, fit into the U.S. political system. Each of us, no matter how big or small a role we play, is an essential contributor to the functioning of our system.