Objective of civic engagement: manifestation of democracy through the ballot
As a primary step towards my Project, I started with the topic of maximizing civic engagement related to the involvement of education and direct interaction with the electorate. The importance of the topic came from the fact that there has to be mass voting to ensure a clearer picture of the democratic choice. The electorate is a significant factor for not only deciding their governing representatives but also in shaping the public stand towards the formation of the right government. Hence, there has to be a vigilance or awareness drive for the voters of the region so that they had a clear perception of their rights and authority to use their voting franchise.
The above analysis came up with a clear implication of devising an education/interactive session with the electorate of my chosen region. However, it is still to be worked out regarding how the program will cast the desired impact on the ballot process.
An effective engagement or education program ends up with attaining the targeted results. Hence, the objective of this civic engagement session was to maximize the voter turnout. As discussed in my earlier journal, it is very important for a democracy to have maximum electoral response from its eligible citizens so as to ensure a clearer picture of the democratic choice of the ruling party. Further, the size f the electorate is also a key determinant of individual or group biasness or prejudices in the political voting environment.
Hence, I concluded that the primary objective of the civic engagement project could only be attained via proper civic education was to develop an effective voter turnout at the day of elections.
Civic engagement, point of interaction and targeted Voter Turnout
The next crucial step was to affix the location of the civic education program. For maximizing the voter turnout, the point of interaction ought to be at a location that could address and access most of the voters. The hub and spoke model will be required where a central office will be maintaining the different points of communication and interaction with the voters. Further, the road show trucks will be required to be accessed from the central office. The neighborhoods will be specifically addressed by trained educators where maximum point of interaction and engagement can be ensured, followed by word of mouth publicity later.
Hence, different street shows and moving road shows will be conducted to address maximum voters with the targeted civic engagement program. The next part is to design the various components of the overall content for the civic engagement program.
Deciding the content of the engagement program
The prime target of the civic education program is to educate the ordinary people about the nature and operational basics of the democratic institutions, value of individual voters in creating the majority decision, and the entire electoral process in the country. The content of this educational program can be made from using various approaches like basic voter education agendas, information about social and political rights, using the voting rights as a medium of the solving the local, regional and national levels issues, and alerting the voters regarding various malpractices and ethical issues.
Thus, this phase enabled the objective of deciding the various aspects of civic education that need to be included in the final course of interactive sessions to maximize the voter Turn Out for the electoral process.
Maximizing civic engagement -1: Informing the role of voters in a democracy
An ordinary citizen should be aware of the fact that he the elementary unit of the democracy and that he is the one who forms the government by electing the representative of his choice who is ultimately supposed to work for safeguarding and upholding the interests and social rights of all the citizens. A voter who withdraws from using his voting rights has actually exposed the democracy to be driven by someone else’s views and perceptions. Hence, the civic education should apprise all the voters that it is their vote which adds with the likeminded individuals to form the decision of the majority. Any act of abstaining from the voting process can lead to a lopsided government which is run by those representatives who represent a specific mentality and ideology.
It can be concluded that the role of individual voter as a contributor to the democracy and possible loss due to his absenteeism from the ballot process are prime communication motifs in the civic education program.
Maximizing civic engagement -2: Development of socio-political awareness and culture
The second crucial component of the civic education program is to apprise the voters of the basic sense of political functions and their consequent impact on the social life of individuals. Further, how the political representatives are further supposed to contribute to various government policies and process is an extremely crucial aftereffect of the voting process. The electorate must be aware of the fact that their actual concerns and issues can only be resolved and addressed via adequate government policies when the right candidates are elected to represent them in the government legislative bodies.
Therefore, the impact of socio-political awareness can be directly changing the government structure and a highly informed voter will definitely choose the right representative for voicing his concerns in front of the government.
Maximizing civic engagement -3: Role of family and peers
The maximum awareness and civic engagement is required from the young voters and students who are too engrossed with their careers and consider them to be aloof from the political system of the country. Some students are too reckless to acknowledge their social responsibility and abstain from the voting process. Hence, the civic education program should involve the family members and peers to encourage and inform the youth about the importance of their votes in shaping the political future of the country. In fact, the role of family values and education is extremely significant as extremely vital socio-political traits could be established in the individuals using this form of education.
Therefore, the engagement programs should specifically call in the participation from the family members and peers of the young members of the society.
Maximizing civic engagement -4: Information of the political parties and their functioning
This segment is the most factual part of the entire civic education project and it requires information of the various active parties in the region and details of their representatives. The earlier performance of the various political leaders and parties in the specific region should be discussed to explain how the results of the earlier voting processes have shaped the current state of the society. The program should focus on the various informative aspects but should refrain from providing an idea of choice to the voters. The sanctity of a perfect civic engagement program lies in the fact that the subjects should be left well-informed about the political structure and participants so that they are to make their own decision of choosing the most appropriate candidate.
The importance of political neutrality in the civic education program brings the project to the last component of the program which is related to ethical and moral aspects of voting.
Maximizing civic engagement: Awareness about the ethical and moral aspects of electoral process
The moral obligations of being a responsible voter are extremely prominent in terms of making the perfect choice of a representative who is the best-fit for the socio-political future of the region. Hence, merely voting due to external pressure or social push should be avoided because such reckless ballot decisions can result in misbalancing the majority decision. Similarly, an unethical practice of wooing voters by material means or mental pressure is also very common feature by those candidates who lack a fair chance of winning the election process. Hence, the education should clearly define the range of illegal practices during the election process.
It can definitely be concluded that any act of influencing the voting decision of an individual or a group is ethically unviable, morally deniable, and legally punishable.
The execution and evaluation of the civic engagement program
As discussed earlier, the execution of the current civic engagement will be done by street shows, road shows, and direct mass-media communication to ensure that maximum citizens are accessed and addressed via the program. All the parts of the civic engagement program will be finally assimilated to shape and cast the desired impact on the voters if the targeted region. However, the success of the entire project depends on a corresponding rise in the voter turnout after the exposure to the proposed program.
Hence, it can be concluded from the design and structure of this civic engagement project that the success of this project can be ascertained only when the voting process will have maximum voter turnout and the actual manifestation of the democracy will be carried out via the ballot results.
Analysis of my experience and research for the project
In terms of starting with the topic of the research, the core aspect of the democracy (as discussed in the class) is the way by which the democratic form of government is formed by the choice of people. Thus, the elections are the backbone of any political process that happens in every society that embraces democracy. Therefore, every individual who has a right to vote should be socially driven and morally obligated to exercise his voting right. This can be achieved when a large number of voters participate in the election process.
Hence, the common people should be furnished with all the necessary motivation and information to participate in the ballot voting. Therefore, my current topic is focussed on developing a civic engagement program for the ordinary people who are a part of the electorate. Consequently, the desired impact of this engagement program should cast a positive impact on the voter turnout enhancement which should be the ideal measure to ascertain the fact that the democracy gets manifested through the ballot and not be selfish pursuits of those who can control mass opinion.
As did my research on the various ways of creating a civic engagement and the desired results from this process, my awareness about the various aspects of the civic engagement and their consequent impact on the voter turnout became clearer. I was successful in developing the point of focus to be the maximization of the Voter turnout as I studied the real motive behind the introduction of the ballot form of elections in the country.
I have already studied that the Voter turnout is a vital element to map the actual implementation of the election in a democracy and that every leader who finally gets the majority votes from a region ideally represents the affinity related decision of the majority of the people for that area. Therefore, a meritorious election process is always indispensable of the voter turnout ratio, which can affect the decision by skewing or balancing the majority poll (Klofstad 25). My course studies have clearly implied that the true essence of a democracy lies in a government formed by the people for safeguarding their own interests and keeping up their well-being. Hence, since the voter turnout comes to be an indication of better participation from the people,a higher voter turnout is always a symbolic victory of the true democratic voice echoed by the people.
The next important research question was about how to finalize the point of interaction with the targeted electorate. In order to approach the maximum majority of the electorate for a region and to ensure a higher level of access during the intended program, I have studied about the maxim interactive points of communication with the ordinary people. The research gave enough experience to develop the engagement plan’s execution on the basis of open access points like roadshows, street shows, and direct public announcement (Klofstad 46).
Finally, the most researched part was regarding the finalization of the interactive content that should have the caliber of creating the maximum push factor for the electorate to participate in the voting process. However, after detailed study and research of various organizations already active in this field, I came upon the most optimum content for the civic engagement program.
The program was supposed to develop a communication based on the core facets of the electoral voting system like basic voter education agendas, information about social and political rights, using the voting rights as a medium of the solving the local, regional and national levels issues, and alerting the voters regarding various malpractices and ethical issues. The entire experience was focussed on getting maximum voter turnout via the civic engagement program planned as per the project.
Work Cited
Klofstad, Casey A. Civic Talk: Peers, Politics, and the Future of Democracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011. Print.
