SzuHan Jen
POSC 100
12-08-14
Participation is amongst many of the key words in development that is used by various role players in political backgrounds. Many role players in development employ participation as a mechanism in different meanings of participation. Particularly, this paper will use an article from The Washington Post to illustrate a type of participation and other aspects relating to participation.
In August 15th 2014, residents of Ferguson Missouri conducted a protest after the shooting of an unarmed black man. The civil unrest resulted in the protesting crowds looting, burning stores, vandalizing cars and taunting police officers. Many people were arrested for burglary, theft and assault charges. The incident in Ferguson had drawn a national reaction and the sensitive issue of race that has historically repeated itself resurfaced in American politics. The issue brought to light interesting facts, for instance, Ferguson’s 67% population is black and out of the six municipal members, five are white.
Additional findings from the article showed that the voting disparity in Ferguson was caused by ethnic biasness in local elections. According to The Washington Times Post, the voter turnout among whites and African Americans turned out in identical numbers 54% and 55%. However, in 2013, the turnout was drastically lower between both groups but the whites were thrice the number of African Americans (Schaffner, Wouter, and Ray 12). The article shows the low voter turnout was because of the municipal elections being held in odd-numbered years. The municipal elections were the same in three-quarters of American municipalities.
The type of participation illustrated by the article is transformative participation, which brings outcomes in the empowerment of those concerned and as a result transforms the structures and institutions that lead to marginalization and exclusion. The racial biases in elections according to findings are because of odd-numbered years in the municipal elections. The odd-numbered years in municipal have directly affected voter turnout that which is among the reason of protests in Ferguson. Three quarters of American municipalities experience similar impacts as those in Ferguson, Missouri. However, the situation in Ferguson is closely magnified because the transformative participation seems to have failed in attaining equality in racial balance in the elections.
Policy makers responsible for the municipal election processes have failed in various ways for instance, Ferguson holds non-partisan elections where party symbols are not indicated on the ballot and less education and income are likelihoods of citizen’s awareness of the candidates. Ferguson’s majority of the electorate was the whites by a 52-47 percent margin. The great difference helps to provide