A friend replies and adds to my knowledge

A friend writes:I agree with you wholeheartedly. The political apathy in this country distresses me immensely,particularly when people were prepared to die because they believed in democracy so strongly.

However, I would like to make 2 points: The American system of government was borne out of a tension between the smaller and larger states, when the constitution was being codified. The smaller states felt that if all federal government bodies were elected by size or population of state, their interests would be completely ignored or overruled - hence the two-chamber system, whereby one house, (the Senate) sees each state elect the same number of Senators, regardless of size, population, etc. The other house - the House of Representatives sees each state return a different number of representatives dependent upon, (if I remember correctly) their population. (When this was being debated in the late 18th Century, states which had large populations of slaves were also worried they would lose out as they had fewer
'voting' members of the population, which led to the despicable '2/3rds' idea.)

Voting, and the civic activity that surrounds this, is something that is embedded in Americans - they vote for many, many local civic positions - I think some towns even vote for their dog-catcher. This is not something we do in this country.

Local politics in the UK also has something of an image problem - people do not know what powers their local or county councils hold, and do not know where to find out. It's also perceived as an area that only 'local busybodies' get on their high horse about - or care enough to stand. People are not aware of the day-to-day impact of local councils etc, so are often unwilling to vote. These are not my feels, but issues we discussed at great length during my degree studies. Admittedly, this is going back 7 or 8 years, so may be out of date. However, I fear the apathy has just got worse.

A parting shot: perhaps it is the 'winner takes all' nature of our 'first past the post' electoral system that puts people off: If you live in an area that is dominated by one particular party, which you don't want to represent you, does your vote for a candidate who stands so little chance of winner, actually count or make any kind of difference? Should we change our electoral system?
This was written as a comment by a young friend but sent to me elsewhere. I reproduce it here because it adds to my argument re Civic activity, which I intend expanding in the next few postings.