Political efficacy is on the decline in America, and this is a major issue for a democratic system.

This concept “Political Efficacy” is used to describe the way an individual feels about their actions having an effect in government. The definition is generally known as “the sense that citizens have the capacity to understand and influence political events.”

There are two types of efficacy:

• Internal Efficacy: Confidence in one’s own ability to understand and to take part in political affairs. This confidence has remained stable over the past few decades.
• External Efficacy: The belief that the political system will respond to citizens. This belief has declined in recent years because of public sentiment that the government has become too big to be responsive.

Efficacy itself comes from ideas in social psychology that are related to things like “ego strength,” “subjective competence,” “self-confidence,” and “personal effectiveness.” This almost assessment of behavior is necessary and likely in democratic systems because of its reliance on citizen participation. If citizens don’t feel like their votes matter, then they either won’t vote at all, or they’ll vote without having any kind of knowledge about the candidates. That is the main reason why political efficacy is important. It decides whether or not someone will even SHOW UP at the polls.

A study done by three political scientists in 1960 at the University of Michigan, asserted that “Internal efficacy boosts participation by facilitating anger, but not fear … [and] external efficacy, because it is not self-referential, is not linked to participation via this emotional process.” To put it into simpler terms, IF a person feels like they can create change in their established government, they are considered to have high feelings of political efficacy.

Studies, such as those done by Ronald Lampert, suggest that political efficacy, both external and internal, are affected largely by social standing. If someone has low feelings of political efficacy than it is likely that they blame the government for their lacking something (ie. a job, money, etc.).

“Opinion of government is harmed by a bad economy, is minimally rewarded for a good one, and is unaffected by another portion of voters who fail to see a connection between their personal finances and the national policies” -Nick C. writer for BlogSpot.com

Beyond that, it is said that college education has an impact on political efficacy as well. If a person doesn’t understand the way the government operates, and/or how to manipulate it, then it’s likely they won’t feel they have the personal ability to impact it (low feelings of internal efficacy).

The History

In American Political Culture, textbooks explain that recent wars and political scandals have heightened America’s mistrust of government. Such as the exposure brought to government during the Vietnam War, the watergate scandal with President Nixon, Bill Clinton’s impeachment for his affair with Monica Lewinsky, and so on. This decline has mainly been noted as occurring since the 1960s. And this distrust goes hand-in-hand with the decline of political efficacy in Americans.

I asked some citizens how they felt about pizza, and then asked them how they felt about politics and our government. The change in their facial expressions says it all.

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The distrust, and the decline in efficacy, has led to apathy and ignorance in politics. In an article published by CJ Werleman on Salon.com he shares the shocking statistics on ignorance…

“A 2007 National Constitutional Center poll found that two-thirds of Americans couldn’t name all three branches of the U.S. federal government, nor a single Supreme Court justice. Another poll found that 91 percent couldn’t name the current Chief Justice, which is staggering considering the number of high profile, politically polarizing cases deliberated upon by the nation’s highest court in recent years – including the rulings on the Affordable Care Act, same-sex marriage and campaign finance laws.”

This is an important matter in our system because along with political efficacy affecting who and how many show up to the polls, the decline affects our democracy as a whole. If people don’t vote, and are ignorant about our government, beyond that, they don’t care to be, then the public will be represented poorly in government.

In recent studies by the Pew Research Center it shows that “most Americans feel like their on the losing side.” This study statistically says that 64% of Americans feel like their side loses more often than it wins. This sentiment is seen across a wide range of demographics; 66% of men and 62% of women, 66% of whites, 65% of blacks and 59% of Hispanics, 79% of Republicans and 52% of Democrats. A decent majority of these demographics all feel as though their side loses more than it wins. What does that mean? Well, they don’t feel positively about government and their representation within it.

Essentially, this information says that a large majority of people feel like the government isn’t giving them what they want/need. Which is an indication of the broad dissatisfaction American citizens feel with their government. Clearly, this is an issue that needs to be addressed, given that we are a democratic system that runs on citizen participation AND satisfaction.

Surveys say we generally aren’t participating, and we aren’t satisfied. Political efficacy is necessary, therefore so is CHANGE.