Civic Engagement and Partisanship

Peter Levine has an excellent post up on the connection between partisanship and increased civic engagement, responding to a piece in the American Prospect by Henry Farrell, which discusses the civic irony present in Obama's candidacy.  While Obama eschews post-partisanship, more people are civically engaged in recent history, mainly through partisan politics.

Levine professes his faith in political parties and rebuts Farrell's criticism of scholars for "not finding much use for" parties, pointing out that the majority of civic engagement scholars want to keep the party system, believing it to be a plus for efforts to increase engagement.

I tend to agree with Levine here.  In some research for my senior thesis on political parties at Allegheny, I found that the increased partisanship in 2004 did increase the level of political engagement as far as attending political meetings/rallies, wearing political stickers/buttons, and voting goes.  While the incoming Millennial Generation tends to be more pragmatic in its problem-solving methods, it's also more collaborative, more technology-driven, and more economy-minded than other than the Boomers and Gen Xers.  By nature, the Millennial Generation wants to be involved, and so, no matter what, I'd argue that there's going to be some increase in the level of interaction, given this generation's size and demographic influence.

In 2003, CIRCLE published a working paper by Dan Shea of Allegheny College titled, "Throwing a Better Party: Local Mobilizing Institutions and the Youth Vote."  The findings were clear: local parties were turning cold shoulders to youth.

First, we attempted to measure the extent to which young voters are on the minds of local party leaders--are they on their "radar," so to speak? Near the beginning of the survey we asked an open-ended question: "Are there demographic groups of voters that are currently important to the longterm success of your local party." "Young voters" (defined as 18 to 25 years of age) were mentioned by just 8 percent of party leaders. Senior citizens were mentioned nearly three times as often, even though the question addresses the "long-term
success of the party."

Emphasis added.  Since 2003, the DNC has undertaken the 50 State Strategy, which has ensured Democratic presence in every community possible -- no matter its voting history.  While it didn't make operatives favoring candidate-centered campaigns happy, it did provide the equipment for a candidate like Obama to use.  With the use of technology and funding galore, whether it was through the well-funded DCCC and DSCC or Obama's own operation, the party adapted and began appealing to as many people as possible -- including young people.  While there is still room for improvement, including opportunities for more representation of youth within the party itself, the Democrats have crafted a party about which the behemoth Millennial Generation can feel at least somewhat excited.  While the Republicans are possibly no further now than they were in 2003, it's clear that the RNC and the McCain campaign had little regard for youth voters, ceding most of that territory to Democrats.

What I make of all this is that the majority of coming-of-age American voters are seeing the Democratic Party as the most representative of their views and lifestyles, and so their penchant for partisanship is increasing, leading to simultaneously increased civic engagement.  Certainly Obama has added a "coolness" factor, but Millennials' traits have already led to an increased participation in the world around them.