Political Participation Leaning Towards Activism

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CHAPTER I

This Chapter will introduce the study and its parameters in the context of Political Participation leaning towards Activism in the University of the West Indies. This section will also explore the theoretical and methodological aspects which were used to undertake this research project.

Personal experience provides lots of enthusiasm for this topic as the current state of Trinidad and Tobago mirrors re-living the extensiveness of corruption once encountered in Venezuela after residing there for twelve years. The current socioeconomic state of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has left all citizens grieving and scattered throughout the world. This situation has escalated through the high levels of government corruption and mismanagement of coupled with society's neglect of not standing up for the country’s well being “when there was still time”. Citizens throughout Venezuela are frustrated and desperate for immediate change and to showcase this here is an example from Venezuela in the 2014 student driven political demonstrations where students across the country embarked on a nationwide political protest against the rising inflation rate, they were quickly joined by the members of society belonging to the opposition. This movement rapidly sparked the attention from the government and international media alerting many spectators around the world to advocate for rapid change[1]. Today Venezuela still has a lot of political and economic rebuilding to achieve, since the political system of government is found at a critical stage where many citizens have lost their purchasing power due to exaggerated inflation rates under fixed salaries.[2]

It would be lamentable for a situation such as this to occur in Trinidad and Tobago due to societal neglect, non-participation and government corruption. Meanwhile tertiary education students often become the new leaders of society and therefore it is interesting to compare the differences between Latin American and Caribbean students while experiencing similar government ups and downs. Nevertheless there are structural differences in the Trinbagonian type of government and therefore political participation within Trinidad and Tobago in terms of political alliances and separation of powers. Trinidad and Tobago has a Westminster model of government system and upholds the traditions of parliamentary democracy.

In the Latin American culture there are many differences to be identified such as the approach to politics, affiliation to political parties and subsequently the lack of reaction to governing politicians. Political participation has always been a mind boggling phenomenon, and this is the most appropriate means of exploring the actual reasons which propel the different reactions among individuals.

As a Latin American Studies and Spanish double major student, I have acquired some knowledge of the factors which produce the type of political culture found in Latin America. These include historical factors, types of governments, economics and literacy levels. Having this wealth of case studies to formulate adequate comparisons, I will attempt to understand the attitudes towards political engagement of the third and final year students of the University of the West Indies St. Augustine, their reasons, feelings and hopes for the future.

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[1] See (Zuniga) for various new forms of radicalism acts of political participation.

[2] Venezuelans continue to battle in order to revoke the current President Nicolas Maduro.

Theoretical Perspectives

The study of political participation is broad and according to Van Deth 2001, it is the study of everything. A more in-depth approach to understanding political participation is through a spectrum of political activities which are categorised accordingly see Fig 1 pg. 9 (Tylor & Francis Group Fig 8.1). The intention in which this general term is isolated is to evaluate the target sample and for them to identify themselves within this spectrum. The term political participation encapsulates activities in which coining a standard definition often leads to a generalization of events. One of the best found which describes the general conventionalist was from David White, who described the most common type of political participation as voting during elections. However, his definition dives into the broader facets of the legal and public systems where the public view is concerned. This notion links actions by citizens affecting politics. Therefore, the list is endless and includes divergent phenomena as voting, demonstrations and boycotts as well as guerrilla gardening, volunteering, flash mobs and even suicide protest.

The explicit primary identifiers were; firstly the political participation described as an activity or action, therefore, passive activity such as watching television, visiting websites or just claiming to be interested in politics is not classified as participation. Secondly, the theorists go on to explain that political involvement is understood as something completed by citizens subsequently politicians, lobbyist do not constitute in this category. Thirdly all actions should be voluntary and not coerced by political parties and institutions. The fourth and last aspect deals with political participation found in the realm of the government, politics or the state as the natural form, here political system, policy process, and policy making or the input side of the political system.[1] Then there’s the distinction between the types of political participation which include the active versus passive, aggressive versus nonaggressive, Structural versus Non-Structural-Governmental versus non-governmental and Mobilized versus Voluntary actions. This research will focus on two main aspects which will be the conventionalist and the activist thought and forms of political participation.

Distinctions of conventional participation can be simply defined as activities that we expect of good citizens. (Gale 2008) This sort of participation occurs every few years at election time. People who are more strongly committed to politics are most likely to participate on a regular basis[2]. This grouping consist of voting, volunteering for a political campaign, making a campaign donation, belonging to activist groups, and serving in public office.

On the contrary, there is the unconventional participation, is defined as “activities that are legal but often considered inappropriate.” (Hutchings 2003) These acts are often carried out by young people, students