For any country, it is essential that the citizens are actively engaged in the affairs of governance, not just because they actively contribute in the drafting and implementing of policies, but mainly because these policies directly impact their well-being by affecting the nature in which they interact with each other, and how they carry out their daily economic activities.
In the United States of America, citizens participate in government in two primary forms; through the electing of leaders as representatives of their views and issues, and through the serving in elective government offices to directly convey the issues raised by the community, and during direct drafting and implementing of policies and solutions. At the local level of governance, these representatives are not only expected to be more accessible to the community due to their geographical proximity, but they are also expected to build a close working relationship with the community. This helps in creating an environment in which issues are experienced from a personal level by the representatives and are thus easily resolved. But there is another side to this spectrum that affects citizen participation in local elections. Because representatives address issues that they easily relate to in the community, their aspirations to vie for local government seats are mostly driven by their personal ambitions to implement solutions that affect them directly, and the contest for local government seats are marked by family feuds and individual competition for social status to exert power and authority over their rivals. As such, these platforms are viewed as areas of personal development as opposed to communal growth. This impacts the community's decision to reluctantly vote in local elections, resulting in low participation in such. Simply put, the population does not participate in local government elections since it is deemed as supporting family growths against each other. Instead, they prefer to participate in federal and state elections, which more effectively address issues of national concern.
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Based on such cases, the representation at local government levels, as earlier stated can be said to be more of personal interest than common interest. It is apparent that the opportunity for political aspirations in such cases, therefore, is closed and available for the chosen few who come from influential families. The typical American citizen from a background that is either not known or less prominent cannot easily get the opportunity to vie for the said seats. Judging by this uneven and unfair chance at the representation of local citizens on the ballot papers, coupled by the fact that the average citizens are barred from participating in active campaign politics since they have no common ground with the ‘nobles', the voter turnout that brings this whole circle to an end, is unsurprisingly low. It is only logical that the locals shun from casting their votes on the fateful. The established patterns of events dictate so. They are barred from seeking to represent at the contesting level, their participation in the campaign politics is limited to agendas that are irrelevant to their wellbeing, why then would they turn out enthusiastically to vote?
The patterns from the word go in the election process limits the community's participation at any given level. They are barred from vying for local seats, their involvement in campaign politics is limited; subsequently, they reluctantly show up to cast their votes. The impact of such a system is that it indirectly promotes a tyrannical and dictatorial regime of governance, which hinders the community's development, be it politically or economically. It also creates a social class difference which is the root of social vices. The solution to this would be advocating for a free system of governance in which every citizen is given equal chances of participating in community governance from the contesting level of governance all the way up. It not only promotes equality in the society, but it also builds on active participation in the drafting and implementing of policies at any given level of governance.
