Understanding what leads to apathy can provide pointers to a more effective programme. But the reasons for voter apathy are not always educational.
Understanding Voter Apathy
When elections are scheduled, there is much talk of low voter turnout due to apathy. Between elections, those who are trying to debate issues with citizens or mobilize citizens in support of their programmes talk about apathy. Where the word is being used in a neutral and purely descriptive sense, this may be true. But discussions of voter or citizen apathy tend towards the pejorative. People may have abdicated their responsibility, and must be motivated to participate - through a judicious mix of reward, retribution, and appeals to altruism and guilt. The cause for the absence of enthusiasm is laid at the door of the voter.
There may be alternative explanations, however, and uncovering these may make for more effective interventions. Unfortunately, these explanations are not always suitable for an educational intervention, so they tend not to be sought until the educational programme has failed, and in some cases not even then.
Educators who seriously intend to address questions of voter turnout and voter apathy will have to consider programmes that reach beyond the motivational to consider a range of educational interventions that fall more comfortably within the area of civic education. They will also want to consider ways in which their society fails to establish sufficient motivation for electoral participation - whether it is the result of perceived foregone conclusions, lack of choice amongst candidates,"or even the impotence of winners to affect necessary changes to the system of government.
Possible Programmes
These are the malaise of democracy, and they cannot be addressed solely by increasing expenditure on voter education. They may, over time, be dealt with by educational programmes that develop a new group of young leaders capable of reconstructing democracy in their own country in a way suitable for the future; or of a generation of young people who are committed to democratic values and practices in government as well as private life. But these interventions may be a touch utopian, and those countries that have reconstructed their systems of governance to ensure a far greater interaction with citizens over a wide variety of issues and in a wide variety of contexts may be on the right track, using these schools of democracy to demonstrate that participation does bear personal and communal fruits.
