Political participation includes voting and any other activity that shapes, affects or involves the political field. Though most people find political participation to be admirable, only about half of eligible U.S. voters participated in the last presidential election. When people choose to participate, it's often influenced by: Idealism, or the pursuit of a higher goal or idea. Civic responsibility, or a social obligation to participate, Self-interest, meaning the person benefits in some way
When people choose not to participate, it's often due to:
Contentment, meaning the person is satisfied with the status quo
Apathy, meaning the person doesn't care enough about the issues to make the effort to vote. Alienation, meaning the person feels that his or her vote doesn't matter. Sometimes people also cite institutional barriers, which are policies, procedures or situations that keep groups of people from accomplishing a particular task. Some of these include: Difficulty with registration, Difficulty with absentee voting,Weekday voting.