ABSTRACT

The government of the United States of America is a patchwork of powers and restraints, rights and restrictions, state and central governments, majorities and elites. The United States was the first country to have a formal, written bill of rights as part of its fundamental law. The political development of the United States has, as in most countries, not been a smooth and agreed-on process of change. The relationship between citizen and state is filtered through the questions, mathematical computations, and expert analysis of the polling companies. The number of pathways that exist for citizen involvement in the political process range from the more common methods of voting and communicating with public officials to the more time-consuming and focused methods of joining interest groups and political parties. Public officials and political scientists have been wrestling with the low voter turnout for years and have come up with a number of ways to increase the level of participation.