Compared to citizens of other democracies, Americans vote less but engage more in communal activity. Who participates in politics is an important issue. Because those who participate are likely to have more political influence than those who do not. Higher education is the single most important factor in producing a high degree of participation. Older persons and men are also likely to be active.
Blacks participate more than whites of equal socioeconomic status.
Although voter turnout has decreased over the past twenty years, it seems that other forms of participation, such as writing letters to public officials and engaging in demonstrations, have increased. There are many ways in which Americans can participate in politics-ranging from voting, which a majority do with some regularity, to belonging to a political club or organization, which only a few do. In an elaborate analysis of the ways people participate, Verba and Nie discovered six different kinds of citizens. Parochial participants neither vote nor engage in campaigns or community activity, but they do contact officials about specific, often personal, problems. Communalists engage in community activities of a nonpartisan nature.