NAME:_______________________
TEMPLE COLLEGE
GOVT 2301
IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT #6
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AROUND THE WORLD
Political participation refers to the actions by ordinary citizens in pursuit of their
political objectives. The usual modes of participation are conventional – that is,
they are legal and regarded as appropriate. The most obvious mode of political
participation is voting.
While the act of voting is relatively straightforward and simple in most democratic
countries, the level of voter turnout can vary significantly from one country to the
next. VOTER TURNOUT refers to the percentage of the eligible electorate (voters)
who actually cast ballots in an election.
Table 1 includes data on voter turnout for 35 countries. The data indicate the
percentage of eligible voters in each country who actually cast ballots in that
country’s most recent national election (as of 1997). Notice that the values
range from a low of 35.7% in Switzerland to a high of 87.8% in Iceland.
For decades, political scientists have studied the factors that might explain the
variation in levels of voter turnout among countries. Many theories have been
advanced and hypotheses have been tested. In this assignment, you will
investigate one possible explanation.
POLITICAL PARTIES AROUND THE WORLD
Political parties are organizations that sponsor candidates for political office and
attempt (to a greater or lesser degree) to coordinate the actions of their
candidates once they are elected to government offices. Some countries have
only one dominant political party. These countries would not be considered
democratic systems, particularly if the government outlaws or prohibits
competing parties. A few countries have as many as a dozen or more significant
political parties.
Examine Table 1 again. The table indicates the number of significant political
parties for each of the 35 countries in our sample. For the purposes of this
assignment, a political party is considered significant if it garnered at least 4% of
the total vote in the country’s most recent national election. The values range
from 2 significant parties in the United States and Nigeria to 9 significant parties
in Slovenia.
VERY IMPORTANT: In this assignment, assume that
dependent variable.
VOTER TURNOUT
is the
THE EXERCISE
1. Think about the data in Table 1. Assume that you were the researcher that
gathered these data. What general question guided you to select these
variables for inclusion in your study? [You are, in essence, working
backwards. Ordinarily, a researcher would have a question first, then gather
data to help answer the question. However, in this assignment the data is
already gathered. In other words, what question would these data help you
answer? [HINT: If you reread the above section carefully, you may not have
to think so hard on this one!] Write your question legibly below.
2. Look again at Table 1. Write (legibly) a hypothesis below which explains the
relationship between the two variables: VOTER TURNOUT and NUMBER OF
PARTIES.
3. On the attached graphing paper, plot the points which represent the NUMBER
OF PARTIES and VOTER TURNOUT for each of the countries. Do NOT attempt to
connect the plotted points with a line. The data are not time series. Also, you
do not have to label the plotted points with the countries’ names.
A scatterplot is a technique used to “test” a hypothesis by ocular examination
of plotted points. Actually, you have generated scatterplots before. You may
recall plotting points on Cartesian coordinates in a high school math class. In
that class, you were taught that the vertical axis was called Y and the
horizontal axis was called X. The grid that is formed by the intersection of
these axes is called an XY plane. In this assignment, each “dot” (plotted
point) that you place on your XY plane will represent a particular country. For
any given country, then, tracing a horizontal line to intersect the Y-axis will
indicate its voter turnout. Likewise, tracing a vertical line down to the X-axis
will give you its number of political parties.
4. The plotted points in a scatterplot such as the one you’ve just completed may
or may not produce a pattern. Sometimes the pattern is very clear; other
times it is less so. Examine your scatterplot. Do the plotted points suggest
support for the hypothesis you wrote in item #2? Answering “yes” or “no” is
insufficient. You must explain your answer. Write your answer legibly below.