ABSTRACT
Political participation is not a transitory whim. It has been a public concern since the concept of democracy was formulated because it is the route to the democratic ideal. Citizen participation in politics is, on the one hand, a means to make representative systems function properly, and, on the other hand, it has as its purpose grassroots politics which embrace voices of all shades (Parry et al. 1992). While political participation may have been a long-standing issue of human history, why and how it has absorbed public attention has taken different forms over time in accordance with political environments. The latter half of the twentieth century, in particular, has seen vigorous professional endeavours to improve citizen participation in politics, as indicators have emerged to signal that representative institutions are in danger. One of those indicators was electoral participation, from which it can be seen that voting turnout has consistently decreased over the last few decades (Putnam, 1993, 2000).
