When I read the text "It's the conversation, Stupid!" by Valid Krebs I was surprised by the fact that voters are that influenced by the people around them and I asked myself whether I would make my vote dependent from a friends' social activities or votings. I wouldn't have thought so, but the more I think about it the more do I believe that I might actually get influenced by these people-even it that only happened subconsciously.
Assume I had a good friend who belonged to a certain party and told me all the good things they fought for I'd probably believe it and support this friend by voting for that party.
But then I (or we) have to aks ourselves whether we oughtn't to be more scrutinizing and independent in order to vote for the parties that support our own ideas and interests.
So this comment leads automatically to the idea og going out and voting, and I found an interesting article by New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/magazine/06freak.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
(I'm interested in what you think about the Swiss system! Did you know that before?)
as well as a video explaining the voting system in the US
What do you think?
I'm looking forward to reading your comments =)
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Nadine, that was a great reading! Thanks for publishing a link to the New York Times article about the Swiss experiment. I never heard about it before.
ReplyDelete---
On July 23, I will cast my vote for a presidential candidate in Kyrgyzstan. We vote during the weekend so that people find time to come and vote. They play music at the polling stations. All in all, the officials try to add some festivity to the event. AND STILL --- the voter turnout is low. People feel powerless, they believe their vote does not count because the future candidate is already predestined to be...Bakiev.
I wonder, whether the young people of my country are still inspired by the outcome of the Am. elections 2008, and kick their asses to vote for their candidates. Not the candidates the head of the family or the old wise men of the village support...
We also have nasty examples when Deans of the Faculties in local universities threatened students to vote for certain candidates. Very discouraging experience.
Krebs' definition of the "social voter" makes much sense to me, a person being born in the predominantly patriarchal society, where we still have a klan system and the male-dominated government.
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Well, Nadine, I could not but comment on your post. This is such a hot topic for me. Once again, great reading and useful links!
See you in class!
Sincerely,
Svetlana