Political Participation - How People Participate

Participation by Other Means than Voting

• Become a member of a political party; more actie membershp might involve serving on a committee
• Wear a party badge at election time or put up a campaign poster
• Seek election to Parliaent, the devolved bodies in Scotland, Wales or Ireland, or a loca council
• Join a pressure group; more active mebershp might involve holding office, perhaps as a trade union representative
• Attend a meeting, distirubte leaflets, canvas people on the doorstep, write to elected representatives or newspaper, take part in a televiion show or radio phone in, respond to an opinion poll, attend a focus group or even set up awebsite
• Particiate in direct action such as aprotest march, a demonstration or a sit down protest, scribble politial grafiti on a wall, go on strike, chain yourself to a public building, damgeproperty or riot against the governmet
• Kidnap a person, hijack a plane or commit some other fom of political violence

More orthodox forms ofparticipation have declined in recent years. There are signs of public disengagement from the…