Citizenship is a concept that gets thrown around here and there in popular media, words like immigration, refugee, and of course the important one, voting. Although you can find this concept of citizenship riddling the headlines, many actual citizens lack the knowledge to what the responsibilities and actions it takes to have “effective citizenship” or to be an “effective citizen.” Being an effective citizen could mean just paying taxes and showing up to vote every two years, or to the other extent it could entail venturing out to town budget meetings and obscure town forums. What does it really mean to be an “effective citizen?” In regards to the population as a whole, interpretations of effective citizenship are far from black and white. …show more content…
To be considered a legal citizen of the United States of America, one must have been born or naturalized in the United States. This making everyone born in the united states a citizen at birth. This, however, can be revoked from an individual barring tax evasion or various other felony offenses. Thus giving a citizen one legal responsibility as a citizen, pay your taxes. If one pays their taxes and abides by the law the government is required to give a citizen protection by the government. Also, this being a democracy, the citizen then receives membership in the political system if one so chooses to utilize it. This membership results in the right to vote, a right that is not only underused but undervalued by the American people.
As the next American presidential election is nearing (a mere seven and a half weeks away.) More and more people are going to be venturing out and exercising their right to vote. This would be an effective system if everyone used this and voiced their opinion to the ballot box. This is, however, not the case. According to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate only 57.5% of eligible voters actually voted in the last presidential election in 2012. This is not an effective way of being an effective
Dalton begins by asking what a good citizen is. He doesn’t give an outright answer of what he thinks a good citizen is, but allows the reader to decide for themselves. Those in political and academic worlds contend that too few in the younger generation are voting and are the primary source of decline. They volunteer, but are disengaged from politics. Dalton disputes this by saying they may not be turning out to vote in high numbers, but are participating in other ways such as volunteering, demonstrating, and protesting, and calls these the new norms of citizenship.
The author argues that without the use of an Electoral College that every vote by an American citizen would still create a big outcome in the election for a candidate. Instead of telling electors who citizens wished to cast their vote for, citizens would be able to really vote for the candidate in which they feel will be most effective for the country. The author believes that the Electoral College has soiled our elections and that we should make a better way in which we can make the elections more efficient and equal for each and every citizen in
Good Citizenship is something that is valued by a country. Although not normally noticed or recognized, good citizenship can come in many forms and can be very beneficial to a specified area. Good Citizenship could mean many different things but ultimately good citizenship promotes prosperity, and increases the well-being of said region. In this country we do have government officials, but they only can do so much, and reach so far, in this country you need to focus on "...Not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" (Kennedy). This means pulling your own weight and not relying solely on these officials and their policies, to get out and try to make this country the best it can be. Which is why through the use of the educatory school system in the United States and through obeying laws of their city/state or nation, and also through the practice of Volunteer work/charity the average American citizen can become above-average and awesome (in every sense of the word) and can also develop into a righteous, upstanding, convivial citizen.
From its early period, the United States has obtained an indirect type of democracy, and has always had contentment that its citizens are allowed to vote for their representatives, especially the President. Nevertheless, the amount of citizens that actually vote in nationwide elections has decreased noticeably over the years. Voter participation and turnout has been declining in the United States throughout history. Voter turnout, the percentage of eligible individuals who actually vote (Ginsberg), to this day is lower than it was in the 1900’s. Since 1912, presidential elections have only had about 50 to 65 percent of Americans participate. This means that about half of United States citizens who are eligible and have the freedom to vote have failed to participate in presidential elections. At the end of the nineteenth century voter turnout started plummeting, reaching the 60 percent level by the election of 1912 (Teixeira, 1987). The declining rate of voter participation in the United States is due to voter registration and procedu...
Citizenship and what it means can be a tough definition for someone to explain. Many do not know where to start as it means many different things to many people. As one LA Times article said, “What is a citizen? A dozen answers to a single question.” (Martelle, 2014). In the Cambridge dictionary, it hosts two definitions for citizenship. One for politics and government and one for society. The first reads, “The state of having the rights of a person born in a particular country.” The second reads, “Citizenship is also carrying out the duties and responsibilities of a member of a particular society.” (Citizenship, n.d.). These two definitions will help shape my definition of citizenship. In my opinion, I believe there is no true definition of citizenship, but it
In the twenty-first century, the United States has never been a more diverse, cultural melting pot. This diversity has been driven by factors such as immigration and globalization. When a nation contains many different races, ethnicities, religions, languages, and traditions, it can be a beautiful cultural mosaic that promotes community, creativity, and innovation. However, challenges can arise that inhibit these goals, leading to exclusivity and discrimination. In today’s society, one of the biggest political issues is citizenship.
The meaning of citizenship as a concept varies significantly for each individual-this meaning is directly influenced by factors such as age, ideological beliefs and socioeconomic class. Due to this difference in perspective it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what citizenship entails concerning the balance between the freedoms that we experience as citizens and the responsibilities that we must each fulfill in order for a democracy to function with stability and efficiency. This has become an issue in modern society as some citizens (particularly those in the millennial cohort) shrug off traditional duty based citizenship norms such as voting in elections, paying income taxes and obeying the law- for more “engaged” forms of participation such
Voter turnout has been declining in the United States throughout history through the potential voters’ personal choice not to vote and ineligibility. According to research a large percentage of individuals are not voting because political parties fail to appeal to the voters and this leads to the voting population losing interest in the campaign, while others postpone registering and by the time they realize their delay the election is upon them.
Theater 180 addressed the quest question of how do people understand and engage in community life? Through this class I’ve gained a better understanding of what civic engagement is. At the start of this semester I had very minimal knowledge about civic engagement. As far as I knew civic engagement was just volunteering but nothing much beyond that. With this class I have learned that civic engagement is much more than just volunteer work.
Learned Helplessness Madelein D. Andrade Florida Atlantic University Learned Helplessness Learned helplessness is the psychological phenomenon that occurs when an individual faces an aversive and uncontrollable situation and learns that they are unable to change the outcome of the situation no matter what action they take (Maier & Seligman, 1976). Overmier and Seligman first explored this phenomenon in 1967. Their experiment was performed on dogs that received inevitable shocks of electricity. The dogs that had been exposed to the inescapable shocks of electricity later failed to recognize an opportunity to escape (Maier & Seligman, 1976).
Voting is the easiest and simplest way of public participation, as well as making the voters feel like they are directly involved in the process. Certain aspects, such as the Electoral College, eliminate this feeling of involvement. The best way for elections to work would be a nationwide popular vote. This would bring a meaning to the term “true democracy” and will get the people, as a whole, the chance to participate in electing the highest officials.
The concept of citizenship traditionally has two meanings: it both implies legal relationships between a person and a country, thus being close to nationality, and defines a normative ideal of the association with a political community and an active participation in it; while analyzing the attributes of ‘a good citizen’, we mostly deal with the latter. Though it is democracy that enables us to fully exploit the capacities of our citizenship by giving us civil, political and social rights, it itself requires responsible citizens for proper functioning of its institutions. However, more and more people these days prefer to abstain from public life and to pursue private interests, and with the growth of passive citizenship, it is worth asking: what does constitute a good citizen? I believe that a good citizen is a person who never makes a choice between private interests and public activities, but the one whose life is balanced between those two, the one who needs to step outside the close circle to fulfill his life-mission, to realize his potential.
The action of voting is such important role in how our country is going to be developed, especially effects on the economy, foreign relationships, society, etc. People are becoming much involved in politics, which is extraordinary because it means that the people are understanding how important their vote is and how it brings change to the issues that truly bother them. Many citizens don’t vote because they are either lazy or too busy, they either have jobs, classes, families, or other responsibilities take care of, but voting is a responsibility that should be attended. Voting could be the thing to prevent awful political leader’s to be put in office who are not focusing on what’s truly important, which is the people, which means that
The role of the citizen is a role with many parts that make up one model character. A good citizen must remain loyal to its country and respect all laws laid down by its government. They also work to improve their communities and stay up-to-date on all the goings-on. But what is a citizen? What makes someone a citizen? When you are a citizen, how do you be a good one? All of those questions and more are answered in this dissertation.
Citizenship education has become a keystone of democratic governments such as those found in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. Other forms of state government (autocracies, oligarchies, monarchies, theocracies, et al.) impose limitations on the rights of its citizens, so therefore the majority of their population will never need to learn what it takes to actually participate in government, and they just learn to follow the mandated laws or else face the consequences. The ability to actively function in a democratic society is not instinctual; it is in fact a learned skill. In her research, L. Alison Molina-Giron (2016) describes how the study of citizenship has become fundamental to democracies because “citizenship education must prepare youngsters to [actively participate]… in their nation’s civic and political life. Indeed, democracy not only