Purpose of Lesson
In this lesson you will learn about one of the most important rights of citizenship. This is the right to participate in governing our nation. The lesson will discuss the different ways you may participate. It will also suggest those things you should think about in deciding whether or not you should participate.
When you finish the lesson, you should know the difference between a citizen and a non-citizen. You should also be able to support your views on whether and to what extent a citizen should participate in government.
Terms to Know
citizen
alien
Who is a citizen?
Anyone who is born in the United States or whose parents are U.S. citizens is a citizen of the United States. An alien is a person who is not a citizen. Many aliens can become citizens by following certain rules and procedures.
The government protects many rights for anyone who lives in the United States. But citizens have one right aliens do not have. That is the right to vote and be elected to public office. Many people say that citizens also have important responsibilities to their country that aliens do not. We will examine what those responsibilities might be in this lesson.
Problem solving
Examining participation
The Founders believed that the main purpose of government was to protect people's basic rights. Almost all citizens have the right to participate in governing our nation. They may choose among many different ways of doing this. Some ways to participate are listed below.
Your class should be divided into small groups. Each group should read the list of ways citizens can participate. Then each group should answer the following questions and share its responses with the class.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each form of participation that is listed?
Are all these forms of participation equally important in protecting our basic rights? Why or why not? Which seem the most important?
Ways citizens can participate
looking for information in newspapers, magazines, and reference materials and judging its accuracy
voting in local, state, and national elections
participating in a political discussion
trying to persuade someone to vote a certain way
signing a petition
wearing a button or putting a sticker on the car
writing letters to elected representatives
contributing money to a party or candidate
attending meetings to gain information, discuss issues, or lend support
campaigning for a candidate
lobbying for laws that are of special interest
demonstrating through marches, boycotts, sit-ins, or other forms of protest
serving as a juror
running for office
holding public office
serving the country through military or other service
disobeying laws and taking the consequences to demonstrate that a law or policy is unjust
Should citizens participate?
Should citizens participate?
Many citizens do not participate in our government. They don't vote or participate in most of the other ways you have just discussed. However, some people believe that citizens have a responsibility to participate.
Deciding whether to participate and how much time to spend participating is important. To make good decisions, you must think about several things. Some of these are:
the purpose of our government
how important your rights are to you
how satisfied you are with the way the government is working
An example may help. Imagine that you have hired a company to repair your bicycle. Before you hired them, you would want to be sure they could repair bicycles. Then you would want to make sure that they did what you had hired them to do. Suppose the company did a good job. Then you would not worry about checking on them if your sister's bicycle needed repairs a few weeks later.
Suppose the company did a bad job on your bicycle. Then you might want to replace them or watch them even more closely when your sister's bicycle needed work.
The same is true with the government. We should be sure the people we "hire" (elect) can do the job we are hiring them for. Once they get the job, we should keep an eye on them to make sure they are doing that job. If they do a good job, we may not watch them as closely. If they do a bad job, we may watch them very closely and may even decide to replace them.
Participation in government is in our own self-interest. The amount of time we spend participating will probably depend on how well we think our elected officials are doing. If everything is going well, we will spend less time than if we are concerned that someone is violating our rights. If we are pleased with the government, we may vote and do little else. If we are dissatisfied, however, we will probably take other types of action.
