Voter turnout in Saskatchewan : how important are civic education and community participation?
Date
2004-08-23
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Voter participation among Saskatchewan’s citizens has decreased in both federal and provincial elections, especially in the past decade or so, and especially among 18-24 year olds. Provincially, turnout has fallen almost 20 percentage points over a four-year period. Saskatchewan voter turnout in federal elections has fallen almost 15 percentage points in a similar time period. The purpose of this thesis is to uncover potential factors that might help to explain why turnout has decreased so
markedly.
Though a number of factors exist to explain why fewer citizens are participating on election day, this thesis has worked to seek out the explanation in two forms. First, taking into account the civic literacy theory of Henry Milner, this thesis has examined Saskatchewan’s junior and senior high school curricula in an effort to find changes in the way civics has been taught. Marked changes have iv
been found, and differences in the prescribed teaching of civics throughout the years point to the possibility that the way in which civics is taught to students may have an effect on whether they feel a duty or obligation to vote. Second, this thesis has, following the social capital theory of Robert Putnam, concluded through a brief survey of membership numbers in a small number of community and volunteer organizations as well as church attendance and volunteer levels that community involvement may also be a factor in deciding whether to vote.
This thesis has concluded that more, duty-oriented civic education is needed in Saskatchewan’s junior and senior high schools in order to ensure that students leaving the education system feel an obligation to participate on election day and in the community more than they are presently.
Description
Keywords
electoral participation, voter turnout, civic education, community participation
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Political Studies
Program
Political Studies