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Concept: Type: Major texts; Keywords: Key figures: Critical: |
Apathy
Protest;
participation; acquiescence; affluent society; generation X; voluntarism;
democracy |
Whereas political apathy is a
genuine problem for progressive politics often the responses to it are ill
founded. Often the argument runs that it is a responsibility or a duty to vote,
a common feature of democratic attempts at voter participation (see for
instance this site; Americans against
political apathy. Often anti-democratic proposals are proposed as a
solution to lack of participation in the democractic process, such as making it
a criminal offence not to vote. A broad response to this might be simply that
for political decisions to have any meaning – or indeed be democratic –
alternatives must be on offer in the political field. The two –party system in
the UK and the USA; the olligarchical dominance of media moguls in Italy and
the general middling of politics to the centre ground in most of Europe
demonstrate that voting for a party is much the same things as voting for the
legitimacy of the system.
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AVOIDING POLITICS: HOW AMERICANS
PRODUCE APATHY IN EVERYDAY LIFE(Nina Eliasoph)
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