Political apathy

In political science, political apathy is a lack of interest or apathy towards politics. This includes political alienation, voter apathy, information apathy and lack of interest in elections, political events, public meetings, and voting. Voter apathy is a lack of interest among voters in the elections of representative democracies. Political apathy or lack of interest is often cited as a cause of low turnout among eligible voters in jurisdictions where voting is optional, and the donkey vote where voting is compulsory. This phenomenon occurs to some extent across all countries or entities where citizens are able to vote. Political apathy has led to increased concerns regarding representative democracies because election results do not encompass the entire population who are eligible to vote. Political apathy is sometimes considered distinct from political alienation, "the sense that voters feel like the political system does not work for them and any attempt to influence it will be a fruitless exercise." Political alienation is adversely related to political efficacy, the voter's trust in their ability influence to politics. The most common electoral consequences of political alienation are abstention and protest voting. One cause of political apathy is due to lack of education. According to a study by CIRCLE director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, nearly 20% of American youth do not feel they know enough to vote. Notably, the study found that many young people have glaring misconceptions about the voting process; for instance, several individuals in the study believed having relatively minor offenses on their criminal record, such as driving under the influence, restricted their ability to vote. This 20% figure is especially significant when juxtaposed with the 20% total youth turnout in the 2018 United States elections. Sometimes, alienated voters feel compelled to vote, but feel "estranged or disaffected from the system or somehow left out of the political process.