Political Apathy and Sustainable Democracy
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives Of Study
The specific objectives of the study are aimed at:
- To determine the factors responsible for political apathy among the electorate.
- To examine the effects of political empathy influence sustainable democracy.
- To examine the influence of voters credibility on sustainable democracy
- To investigate the effects of political attitude on sustainable democracy.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Conceptual Review
Political Apathy
Critically speaking, the concept of political apathy has continued to be mistaken for the related concept of voter apathy, even from highly unexpected discursive quarters. For instance, when Holland (2014) set out to ask: Will Americans Set a New Record for Political Apathy in 2014?
The entire discussion finally centered on the issue of voter apathy in the United States of America. He argues: It’s a paradox: The United States is supposed to be a beacon of democracy, yet Americans have one of the lowest levels of electoral participation in the world. In fact, a 2012 study found that the US ranked “120th of the 169 countries for which data exists on voter turnout, falling between the Dominican Republic and Benin.” Our turnout rate has been consistently declining since the 1970s.
Political apathy is the deficiency of love and devotion to a state. It is the indifference on the part of citizens of any state as regards their attitudes towards political activities such as elections, public opinions, and civic responsibilities. Political apathy is therefore absence of interest in, or concern about, socio-political life. Thus, an apathetic person lacks interest in the social and political affairs of his country. Political apathy has manifested itself in Nigeria, in the following forms: one, the decline to register as a voter; two, the refusal to vote; three, failure to protest against rigging and four, failure to assist the security agents with useful information (Yakubu, 2012).
In the subfield of electoral democracy and political participation, political apathy represents lack of psychological involvement in public affairs, emotional detachment from civic engagements and obligations, abstention from political activity and general lack of passion in the electoral process (INEC & FES, 2011; Ebenezer, 2018). The difficulty in measuring general political apathy in a political system and process, made political scientists, in most cases, to focus on the electoral process and citizens participation in elections, to measure the presence or absence of political apathy in a democratic system.
Political apathy is “the lack of psychological involvement in public affairs, emotional detachment from civic obligations and abstention from political activity”(INEC& FES, 2011; p.15). It is part of the general decline in citizens’ involvement in political activities of a particular country or nation (Fagunwa, 2015). Citizens of a country may be very active politically in public opinion aggregation, policy formulation, civic engagement with government and political leaders in the attendance and participation in political functions and activities (summits, seminars, rallies, debates, town hall meetings etc.),and yet refused to turn out to vote on the day of elections. This is why political apathy can be measured in the context of voter participation in the electoral process (voter turnout). The concepts of vote, election, voter, voter turnout and democracy within the sub-field of political apathy need comprehension for synergy of analysis. Basically, a vote is simply the official choice citizens make during election. When candidates present themselves for public or political offices, citizens make choices by way of expressing approval or disapproval for or against a particular candidate who presents himself/herself, or is presented by a political party, for an election. A voter is the person legally and constitutionally empowered to exercise this very important civic duty, right or obligation. This right is exercised in an election. Election is the official act or process by which citizens of a democracy choose their representatives for public or political offices. When elected, citizens expect political accountability from their political representatives with the exercise of their mandates. When this is not the cause, according to Ebenezer (2017), voter apathy ensues which results in low voter turnout during elections. Voter turnout is simply the percentage of eligible voters who cast their ballots in an election. Pintor and Sullivan (2010) argued that voter turnout is usually expressed as the percentage of voters who cast a vote (including those who cast blank and invalid votes) in an election. Geys (2006) insisted that it is the totality of a number of people who participate in voting in a given election, and it is usually given in percentages. The level of political participation through voter turnout, according to Ebenezer (2017), determines the respect or disrespect such government gets from the people.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Study Design
The research design adopted for this study was survey design. The design allowed the researcher to collect data for the study using population and sample of the study. This enabled the researcher to describe the relationship between organisational justice and sustainable democracy using the resulting data to explain and predict the given relationship between the study variables. It also helped to gather data to test the formulated hypotheses for this study through population and sample of the study.
Study Area
The study investigates political apathy and sustainable democracy in Nigeria. The study will be limited to Lagos State alone. The choice of Lagos state is chosen because it is the adjudged the 7th economy in Africa, and according to Egbas (2019), the State has a total number of 16, 570, 29. The respondents to be sampled will be limited to people who fall within the minimum age of participation in politics of 18 years.
Population of the Study
The population of the study comprised all the citizens who are 18years and above. This is because the minimum voting age in Nigeria is 18years. The total population for the study, therefore, is 9, 328, 401
Sampling Technique and Sample Size
A multi-stage sampling technique is employed in the study. In the first stage, the Taro Yamane online sample size calculator is used. The sample size arrived at is 401 sample size size was obtained. The purposive sampling technique was then utilised to get the study sample of one hundred and eighty-seven (187) respondents.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The main concern of this chapter is to present data, results and discussion of findings. It is structured to contain the analyses of personal characteristics of respondents, research questions, the test of hypotheses and discussion of results.
Personal Data of the Respondents
This section presents the demographic variables such as sex, age, marital status, educational background, religion and ethnic group and work experience. The data obtained on these variables are presented on table 4.1 and the results are interpreted using simple percentage analysis.
One hundred and eighty seven (187) copies of the questionnaire designed for this study were distributed to the respondents of the study. But only one hundred and eighty (180) copies of the instruments were returned which showed that all the 180 returned copies of the questionnaires were valid instrument for the study analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
The purpose of this study was to empirically find out how political apathy and affects sustainable democracy. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that Nigerians should change some of the sections in the constitution for the independence and development of INEC officials. The commitment to this initiative should be clearly articulated and should form a key plan for the executive game plan. Given the violence state of the politicians, Nigerians should rewrite the constitutions to take care of this violence that characterizes the environment of the present day politics. The empirical evidence reflects the degree of violence, threats, abuse of human rights which threaten, to a large extent, credible, free, and fair election and disenfranchises voters from poll on voting days. There is evidence to suggest that countries where order prevails were more committed to encouraging voters. The adherence to rules and law of the game seem to enjoy strong support. Conversely, there appears to be a lack of cohesion demonstrated by the absence of order, transparency and accountability
Conclusion
The central contention in this study is that we have had in Nigeria, a case of deepening political apathy which has been masqueraded as political participation, simply because some truly few members of the registered political parties, periodically claim to be selecting and presenting candidates for what in their own views, amount to general elections. When therefore we want to talk about political apathy which is generic, we end up discussing voter apathy which is only a subset of the general issues. In the process, democracy remains falsified in Nigeria and this remains an indictment on the political parties, as indispensable pillars of democracy. In order to authenticate democracy in Nigeria therefore, the political parties must of necessity begin to provide for the citizens, credible avenues of political participation and present to the electorate, credible candidates of impeccable pedigree, not political party opportunists. The availability of such input from the political parties would invariably minimise the chances of apathy occurrence in the Nigerian polity manifestoes get into the hands of Nigerian citizens. As argued by Jamo (2005), democracy as understood and practiced in the western perspective is impossible without the effectiveness of political parties. Generally, he argues, political parties the world over or in any democracy constitute what one may refer to as “market of ideas” where the electorate as “buyers” were expected to make informed choice of what they buy. The “commodity” advertised for sale in that “market” by the parties were the electoral promises most often contained in their manifestoes, party policies and other campaign promises. That is why in advanced democracies, political parties were basically ideologically rooted, thereby giving the voters the option of choosing between contending political perspectives, philosophies and ideologies. Regrettably, Nigerian political parties are not so ideologically oriented (Jamo, 2005). The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), we recommend, must begin to compel the parties to be ideologically oriented! We recommend for Nigerian political parties, a system whereby only men and women who have been tried and trained, tested and trusted as political party democrats and mobilisers of impeccable pedigree (of men and resources) are presented for elective positions. These men and women would have served as local, State or national Organising Secretaries, Publicity Secretaries, Convention Keynote Speakers, Convention Planning Committee Leaders, Party Chairmen and Secretaries, Treasurers, etc; for some number of years, before their parties would present them to the general political system for elective positions. In other words, the quality of input in terms of the credibility of the candidates presented by the political parties contributes to the prevalence or otherwise of political apathy in the larger political and democratic system. With such men of credibility in power, the incidence of political apathy is likely to be reduced. Indeed, when the political parties introduce strange leaders to the general political system, it induces political apathy, especially in instances where the manifesto of neither the party nor their strange candidate is known to the skeptical citizens.
Recommendations
Accordingly, the following recommendations are put forward to ensure increase in political participation in Nigeria and South Africa especially electoral participation.
- The electoral bodies in Nigeria and South Africa should be empowered to be independent in order to conduct free, fair and credible elections. This would arouse the patriotic zeal of citizens to perform civic duties of voting as a way of choosing political representatives in a democracy
- Political elite in government should exercise the citizens’ mandate with transparency, honesty and responsibility. The dividends of democracy should be visible in the areas of infrastructural development, poverty alleviation, employment generation, literacy enablement and overall improvement in the people’s standard of living
- The political and electoral system should be less violent and less militarised in both countries. The exercise of political rights should be democratic, free, and fair, without molestation and intimidation. Political apathy will be reduced when the electorate feel safe, free, and comfortable exercising their rights to vote or participate in the electoral or political processes.
- Political apathy is borne out of perceived disregard for electorate’s values in the polity. The level of political alienation and injustice in the polity especially in the processes of policy formulation and implementation has made political participation especially voting unattractive. There should be inclusivity on all fronts, a synchronisation of ideas between the government and the governed whether as candidates or supporters should be accommodated in the democratic process. Ethnicity, religion and political affiliation should not always decide who gets what, when and how in the polity.
- There should improvement in the use of technology in the conduct of elections in both countries to enhance political participation. Electronic voting, use of ATM machines and POS devices configured with voter’s card will enhance the credibility of the electoral process. Government and the electoral body should develop a technological system to enhance electoral credibility. Political apathy will be a thing of the past if voters are valued, respected and appreciated at all times. The sovereignty of the political system should be truly restored back to the people to curb political apathy in the democratic systems of Nigeria and South Africa.
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