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- Elections, especially in democracy, control political
behavior/decisions
- The system can be manipulated
- The gov't doesn't represent everybody; it represents voters
- Young people don't vote, so they aren't pandered to
- Belief that the issues being discussed are distant
- So you need to participate
- Because your future is being decided now
How Dr. Rich socializes his kids to their civic duty
- Mocked up ballot box, voter ID, "I voted" stickers
- Brings his kids to the polls, or involves them with mail-in ballots
- Election participation is a civic duty
- Has a profound impact
- Ex: suffrage rights
"All men are created equal" was in no way correct. Liberalist idealism
- In some states, only 10% voted.
- Property qualifications, "economic stake=political stake"
Suffrage is now, in the letter of the law, for every adult citizen who
hasn't "violated their civic responsibility" (like prisoners).
How did it develop over time?
- African Americans
- 1865-70 "Civil War Amendments"
- (Only) during Reconstruction--2 black people elected to Senate and
14 to House
- After Reconstruction ends with Union soldiers leaving, they
get redisenfranchised.
- After 1901, next to serve was 1972
- Southerners did much of the active prohibition of voting
- But federal gov't and many Northerners stood by
- Literacy tests and "Character tests" (very low pass rate)
- Employer permission to vote
- Restrictions on voter registration
- 1965 Voting Rights Act
- An active law; funding withheld from states
- Turnout was low in first few years, but they eventually
returned.
- Women
- Could, sometimes, inherit property from husbands or male
relatives.
- When only property determined voting rights, women could vote.
- But by 1910, only 4 states had given women the right to vote.
- Powerful interests opposed suffrage
- Southern whites didn't
- Manufacturers didn't
- because women would vote against child labor (very cheap)
- Catholic Church
- "Vote is contrary to the proper role of women"
- British women's suffrage movement
- Gave a playbook/methods for influencing change
- Cannot be a private act; must be public like marches,
protests
- Also have to make those in power (men) care about the issue
- Women boycott domestic work
- Well-timed, uses WWI. 19th Amendment 1920
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