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Political Apathy

Political apathy occurs when citizens show little interest in public affairs and political processes. This can promote electoral malpractice if many citizens register to vote but do not vote, allowing election results to be falsified. It also means governments are less accountable since they do not feel responsible to citizens who did not vote for them. Political apathy can further corruption and delay benefits of democracy as leaders may be surrounded by advisers focused on theft rather than public interests. It can also threaten citizens' fundamental human rights if unaccountable leaders gain power.

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Shakeerah Sadeeq
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938 views8 pages

Political Apathy

Political apathy occurs when citizens show little interest in public affairs and political processes. This can promote electoral malpractice if many citizens register to vote but do not vote, allowing election results to be falsified. It also means governments are less accountable since they do not feel responsible to citizens who did not vote for them. Political apathy can further corruption and delay benefits of democracy as leaders may be surrounded by advisers focused on theft rather than public interests. It can also threaten citizens' fundamental human rights if unaccountable leaders gain power.

Uploaded by

Shakeerah Sadeeq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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POLITICAL APATHY

• Political Apathy is a situation where citizens of a


state are politically apathetic. People are politically
apathetic when they show little or no interest in
public affairs and do not like to participate in politics
or political process of the state.
• Note that everybody in a state cannot participate in
politics. However, when the number of people who
do not participate in politics rises, it becomes a
political problem for the state.
DISADVANTAGES OF
POLITICAL APATHY

• 1. It promotes electoral malpractice:- A


situation where people register to vote and
refuse to go to the polling station to vote on
election day will give political parties easy
platform to rig election and falsify election
result. It will also make it easy for political
parties to induce people with money to vote.
• 2. It promotes a non-accountable
government:- Since political apathy have the
possibility of breeding electoral malpractice;
those who come into power have the
perception that they come into office not
because people voted for them but because of
the money they spent to buy the office.
Hence, they see no need to provide good
government and have no responsibility to
account to the electorate. Such a government
does not listen to the wishes of the people.
• 3. It promotes corruption and delay the delivery of
democracy:- Political leaders in a politically apathetic
state are likely to be surrounded by mediocrity. That is,
people who will influence them negatively to steal public
funds, and divert public resources to personal use.
• When this occur, the dividends of democracy which
reflect through good governance that improve the quality
of its citizens will be delayed if at all it will be provided.
• 4. It can prevent people from enjoying their
Fundamental Human Rights:- When people are
politically apathetic, wrong people come into leadership
position. Such leaders do not in any way give regard to
people’s fundamental rights and could occasionally
abuse the rights of its citizens.
REASONS FOR POLITICAL APATHY
• 1. Bad Governance: The poor state of
infrastructures and social amenities in Nigeria is a
reflection of the fact that we have not enjoyed the
best of governance.
• Water no longer run from our public taps regularly,
power supply has been epileptic; so many accidents
on our highways because our roads are bad and our
hospitals are not well equipped. This has made many
Nigerians to lose hope and trust in our democratic
system.
• 2. Unfulfilled Political Promises:- When
most politicians get into government, they
tend to forget their promises to the people and
all they work towards is enriching themselves
by embezzling government(public) funds.
This experience has made people to lose hope
in politicians and political parties and has
accounted for political apathy in the country.
3. Poverty and Unemployment: People are
politically apathetic today because there is high
rate of unemployment around us and those that
are even working are not well paid. When
people are poor, their primary concern will be
to overcome poverty and not how to develop
the political process of the state. Government
has failed to play its role of creating
opportunities that will promote job creation.
• 4. Illiteracy:- Illiteracy is not only in term of
those who do not go to school. Those who are
educated are not well informed as to their
political rights as citizens of Nigeria. Some do
not know that they have equal right to vote
and be voted for without been intimidated or
molested by anybody. Thus, ignorance has
been responsible for peoples’ political apathy.
• 5. Violence or insecurity

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