POL110 Week 6 Scenario Script: Political Participation Slide # Scene/Interaction Narration Slide 1 Introductory screen, containing the environment (an outside view of a government office building) and a title showing the scenario topic. There will be a “begin” button on the screen allowing students to begin the scenario. Slide 2 Slide 3 Slide 4 Scene 1 Amanda and Dr. Ryan standing in Dr. Ryan’s office. Scene 2 Amanda and Dr. Ryan do a visual tour of a museum or historical exhibit in Capitol Hill that showcases the material that is covered. This is sort of a visual tour of Washington D.C. as well as a visual component to the conversation. Dr. Ryan: Hello Amanda. Good to see you. Last week we examined American political parties and how interest groups affect their behavior. This week we’re going to cover political participation, focusing on the campaign process and the elections they lead to. Before we get started, what are your thoughts about these concepts, Amanda? Amanda: I think it’s important that only in a democratic society would you see campaigns free of violence and elections based on the principle of a one man-one vote system. That’s not to say that we didn’t arrive at this stage without violence, because there are plenty of examples in our history. But we’re there now. Dr. Ryan: Alright then, can you provide some examples? Amanda: Easily. Women didn’t have the right to vote until 1920 and they had to agitate heavily for that against some pretty strong opposition. And blacks were discriminated against at polls throughout the South until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. Campaigns and elections are now very civilized affairs. But until the early twentieth century, voter fraud and the intimidation of black voters were common at polling stations, mostly in the South. And telling out lies about one’s opponent was commonplace in campaigns at every level. Dr. Ryan: So what do you think changed? Amanda: I think we became a more sophisticated democracy in the twentieth century. That, and libel laws were more strictly enforced by the courts. Dr. Ryan: Excellent observations. In fact, voters were tired of the free-for-alls that marked the political process up to that point. They demanded more accountability from their elected officials. This made them start promising less and delivering more on the promises they did make. Even now, candidates don’t always fulfill these promises. But at least the voter has made them become more realistic. Amanda: This is why it is so ironic that, as politics has cleaned itself up, voter participation has dropped. Dr. Ryan: Indeed it has. During elections in the nineteenth century and up through the middle of the twentieth century, it was not uncommon to see voter turnouts of seventy to eighty percent. But now that figure has fallen below seventy percent and in some presidential elections, we’re lucky if half of all eligible voters make an appearance. That’s by far .