IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v705y2023i1p95-115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Educating Students for Democracy: What Colleges Are Doing, How It’s Working, and What Needs to Happen Next

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth A. Bennion
  • Melissa R. Michelson

Abstract

In the U.S., we have historically looked to our educators to prepare citizens for full participation in our democracy as engaged and informed voters. We examine the student voting movement that has taken root in colleges and universities across the country—a movement that offers a promising way forward in forming a new generation of engaged citizens. We detail what we know about how to increase student turnout, suggest ways to strengthen voter mobilization efforts through a broader civic education agenda, chart a path forward for future research, and offer recommendations for college administrators who seek to make voting a lifelong habit for their students. We also look beyond the student voting movement to argue for new forms of pedagogy that foster civic identity so that students think of themselves as voters who always vote, because voting is a necessary way to express themselves as engaged citizens.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth A. Bennion & Melissa R. Michelson, 2023. "Educating Students for Democracy: What Colleges Are Doing, How It’s Working, and What Needs to Happen Next," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 705(1), pages 95-115, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:705:y:2023:i:1:p:95-115
    DOI: 10.1177/00027162231188567
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00027162231188567
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00027162231188567?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Campbell, David E. & Niemi, Richard G., 2016. "Testing Civics: State-Level Civic Education Requirements and Political Knowledge," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 110(3), pages 495-511, August.
    2. McNulty, John E. & Dowling, Conor M. & Ariotti, Margaret H., 2009. "Driving Saints to Sin: How Increasing the Difficulty of Voting Dissuades Even the Most Motivated Voters," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 435-455.
    3. Joshua J. Dyck & James G. Gimpel, 2005. "Distance, Turnout, and the Convenience of Voting," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(3), pages 531-548, September.
    4. Nickerson, David W., 2008. "Is Voting Contagious? Evidence from Two Field Experiments," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 102(1), pages 49-57, February.
    5. Moura, Mauricio & Michelson, Melissa R., 2017. "WhatsApp in Brazil: mobilising voters through door-to-door and personal messages," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 6(4), pages 1-18.
    6. Nickerson, David W., 2008. "Does Email Boost Turnout?," Quarterly Journal of Political Science, now publishers, vol. 2(4), pages 369-379, January.
    7. Rogers, Todd T & Michelson, Melissa R. & Valenzuela, Ali Adam & Malhotra, Neil, 2011. "Text Messages as Mobilization Tools: The Conditional Effect of Habitual Voting and Election Salience," Scholarly Articles 10471523, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. J. Andrew Harris & Catherine Kamindo & Peter van der Windt, 2020. "Electoral Administration in Fledgling Democracies:Experimental Evidence from Kenya," Working Papers 20200036, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jan 2020.
    2. Christine Fauvelle-Aymar & Abel François, 2018. "Place of registration and place of residence: the non-linear detrimental impact of transportation cost on electoral participation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 405-440, September.
    3. Rustam Romaniuc & Andrea Guido & Pierre Baudry & Cécile Bazart & Loïc Berger & Noémi Berlin & Aurélie Bonein & Imen Bouhlel & Kene Boun My & Michela Chessa & Paolo Crosetto & Etienne Dagorn & Quentin , 2024. "The limits of behavioral nudges to increase youth turnout: Experimental evidence from two French elections," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-04677596, HAL.
    4. Salomo Hirvonen & Maarit Lassander & Lauri Sääksvuori & Janne Tukiainen, 2023. "Who is mobilized to vote by short text messages? Evidence from a nationwide field experiment with young voters," Discussion Papers 157, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    5. John Gibson & Bonggeun Kim & Steven Stillman & Geua Boe-Gibson, 2013. "Time to vote?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 156(3), pages 517-536, September.
    6. LeRoux Kelly & Langer Julie & Plotner Samantha, 2023. "Nonprofit Messaging and the 2020 Election: Findings from a Nonpartisan Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) Field Experiment," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 157-183, April.
    7. Grácio, Matilde & Vicente, Pedro C., 2021. "Information, get-out-the-vote messages, and peer influence: Causal effects on political behavior in Mozambique," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    8. Finan, Frederico & Seira, Enrique & Simpser, Alberto, 2021. "Voting with one’s neighbors: Evidence from migration within Mexico," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    9. Alberto Chong & Gianmarco León‐Ciliotta & Vivian Roza & Martín Valdivia & Gabriela Vega, 2019. "Urbanization Patterns, Information Diffusion, and Female Voting in Rural Paraguay," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 63(2), pages 323-341, April.
    10. Vincenzo Galasso & Tommaso Nannicini, 2016. "Persuasion and Gender: Experimental Evidence from Two Political Campaigns," CESifo Working Paper Series 5868, CESifo.
    11. Carolin V. Zorell, 2020. "Nudges, Norms, or Just Contagion? A Theory on Influences on the Practice of (Non-)Sustainable Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-21, December.
    12. Anna M. Wilke & Donald P. Green & Jasper Cooper, 2020. "A placebo design to detect spillovers from an education–entertainment experiment in Uganda," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(3), pages 1075-1096, June.
    13. Galasso, Vincenzo & Nannicini, Tommaso, 2013. "Men Vote in Mars, Women Vote in Venus: A Survey Experiment in the Field," CEPR Discussion Papers 9547, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Barton, Jared & Pan, Xiaofei, 2022. "Movin’ on up? A survey experiment on mobility enhancing policies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    15. Mariella Gonzales & Gianmarco León-Ciliotta & Luis R. Martínez, 2022. "How Effective Are Monetary Incentives to Vote? Evidence from a Nationwide Policy," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 293-326, January.
    16. Fosco, Constanza & Laruelle, Annick & Sánchez, Angel, 2009. "Turnout Intention and Social Networks," IKERLANAK info:eu-repo/grantAgreeme, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    17. Hoffman, Mitchell & León, Gianmarco & Lombardi, María, 2017. "Compulsory voting, turnout, and government spending: Evidence from Austria," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 103-115.
    18. Batista, Catia & Seither, Julia & Vicente, Pedro C., 2019. "Do migrant social networks shape political attitudes and behavior at home?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 328-343.
    19. Andrea Cintolesi, 2024. "‘Keep friends close, but enemies closer’: connections and political careers," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 200(1), pages 257-284, July.
    20. Caroline Le Pennec & Vincent Pons, 2023. "How do Campaigns Shape Vote Choice? Multicountry Evidence from 62 Elections and 56 TV Debates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(2), pages 703-767.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:705:y:2023:i:1:p:95-115. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.