Political Apathy

In any democracy, political participation is an essential ingredient in promoting accountability and protecting the rights of individuals. Political apathy results when citizens lose interest in participating in the political process. Political participation encompasses activities that range from following the news and discussing elections to voting and actively campaigning for candidates. The most easily quantifiable level of political activity is voting, and a large body of literature has been devoted to that measurement.

It is generally accepted that political apathy has been on the rise in the United States since the 1970s. Roughly half the eligible voting population goes to the polls in any given presidential election. Reasons given for the increase in apathy include the decline in neighborhood cohesiveness, the slick packaging of candidates, the rise of sensationalist media, post-Watergate distrust in politicians, disillusion with the voting process following the 2000 election, and the disinterest of generation X (those born between 1965 and 1978).

Overview

American culture changed rapidly in the twentieth century. Before World War II, most Americans lived in large cities, small towns, or rural communities. Only 15 percent of the population lived in suburbs. During the 1950s, Americans left the cities and rural areas in droves, moving to suburbs and commuting to work in the cities. Time spent on commuting meant less time spent forming bonds and building interest in local and community affairs. By 2002, one-half of the US population lived in the suburbs, and neighborhood cohesiveness had virtually disappeared.

The nineteenth century has been called the golden age of political participation in the United States. The social issues of the day gave rise to much political involvement, from abolition and prohibition to women’s suffrage and workers’ rights. When Abraham Lincoln won the election of a significantly divided country in 1860, the voter turnout was 81.2 percent. The first seven decades of the twentieth century were marked by two world wars, the Great Depression, and major cultural transformations in recognizing the rights of previously marginalized groups, from human rights in general to children’s rights, labor rights, civil rights, and women’s rights. In 1916 with the threat of World War I on the horizon, 61.6 percent of eligible voters turned out on Election Day. Similarly, 62.5 percent voted for president in 1940, the year before Pearl Harbor. At the height of the civil rights movement in 1964, 61.92 percent of eligible voters went to the polls and elected Lyndon Johnson.

Television entered the world of presidential elections with the 1952 election, changing the political scene forever. In 1960, the impact of the new medium was demonstrated when a youthful and charismatic John F. Kennedy walked away with the presidency during a debate with an ill and un-photogenic Richard Nixon. Vice President Nixon learned his lesson well, and presidential candidates subsequently became products to be polished and sold to the American electorate, simultaneously heightening political apathy and distrust.

In 1974, the Watergate scandal toppled Nixon’s presidency and produced lasting distrust of politicians. Subsequent political scandals such as the Iran Contra arms deal of Ronald Reagan’s presidency and the Monica Lewinsky scandal of Bill Clinton’s presidency served to heighten distrust. Interwoven with that mounting disillusionment were the rise of sensationalist media that focused on political scandals, the horse race nature of campaigns, and the decline of newspapers that had traditionally provided substantive information on the candidates. While the rise of the Internet provided new avenues for political discussion and unlimited access to information, the content was often skewed by the tendency of individuals to seek out websites and pundits who supported their already entrenched views.

The election of 2000 exacerbated distrust because the integrity of the entire political process was called into question when Vice President Al Gore carried the popular vote, but George W. Bush won the electoral vote due to controversial vote counts in Florida, where his brother Jeb served as governor. In Bush v. Gore, the US Supreme Court determined that Bush had won the election. States passed major electoral reforms after the election, but those reforms were often controversial.

Political apathy is greatest among American males. In 1964, 72 percent of males voted in the presidential election. By 2008, that number had declined to 56 percent. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, women voted in slightly higher numbers than males in large part because they tended to be better educated, and educational level is a significant predictor of active political participation. By 2020, according to Statista, 63 percent of women voted, while 59.5 percent of men voted. A significant portion of the male population—those who are incarcerated—is also banned from voting, which translated to 3.2 million males in 2024, according to the Sentencing Project.

In a 1999 article for Atlantic Monthly, Ted Halstead argued that members of generation X had honed political apathy into an art, becoming the most disengaged generation in US history. In 1994, the year that ushered in the so-called Republican Revolution and House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s (R-GA) Contract with America, only 20 percent of generation Xers voted in the off-year election. Two years later, only one-third of them voted for a presidential candidate. By contrast, half of Americans aged 18 to 24 voted in 1972. Members of generation X are viewed as less partisan, less knowledgeable about political issues, and more distrustful of government than earlier generations.

There are signs that younger Americans may be becoming less apathetic. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), 23 percent of younger Americans voted in the 2022 midterm elections. This is lower than the highest percentage, 28 percent, in 2018 but a significant improvement over 2014, when only 13 percent of young Americans voted in midterm elections.

Bibliography

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Cassino, Dan, and Yasemin Besen-Cassino. Consuming Politics: Jon Stewart, Branding, and the Youth Vote in America. Madison: Farleigh Dickinson UP, 2009. Print.

Claggett, William J. M., and Byron E. Shafer. The Issues Structure of Mass Politics in the Postwar United States. New York: Cambridge UP, 2010. Print.

DeLuca, Tom. The Two Faces of Political Apathy. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1995. Print.

Gilens, Martin, Lynn Vavreck, and Martin Cohen. “The Mass Media and the Public’s Assessment of Presidential Candidates, 1952–2000.” Journal of Politics 69.4 (November 2007): 1160–75. Print.

Halstead, Ted. “A Politics for Generation X.” Atlantic Monthly 284.2 (1999): 33–42. Print.

Hardaway, Robert M. Crisis at the Polls: An Electoral Reform Handbook. Westport: Greenwood, 2008. Print.

Hopkins, Daniel, and Thad Williamson. “Inactive by Design: Neighborhood Design and Political Participation.” Political Behavior 34.1 (2012): 79–101. Print.

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Uggen, Christopher, et al. "Locked Out 2024: Four Million Denied Voting Rights Due to a Felony Conviction." The Sentencing Project, 10 Oct. 2024, www.sentencingproject.org/reports/locked-out-2024-four-million-denied-voting-rights-due-to-a-felony-conviction/. Accessed 26 Dec. 2024.

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