I am a senior in my last semester at Arizona State. I am currently working on my senior thesis in economics. I have decided to study participation in local government in economic terms. I have a rough idea of what I'm going to write about for my Thesis, but I need your help to flesh out the details. More below the fold.
I believe that local (and to some degree, state) government differs greatly from Federal government. Among some of the key differences are the greater numbers of unpaid and part-time elected officials, the lower numbers of interests groups, and the far greater influence of individual citizens. Each of these has its own impact, but what I need the community's help with is understand the influence of individual citizens.
Because of the smaller number of voters involved, each vote has a greater impact on a local election than a national election, and yet more people vote for the major races (i.e President, Congress) than they do for their local races. I am not studying voting behavior (in fact, another student in my class is studying voting), but rather why people go further and decide to volunteer and become actively involved with local government.
What I need from the Kossack community is stories. I know this request might not seem sensible from an economist, but I am a behavioral economist. Tell me about the first time you got involved in local government. Or the latest, or the last. What were you expectations? How did you benefit from your participation? What did you give up to participate? Not just money, but also time. If you didn't participate in government, what would you be doing instead?
I know that I'm asking a lot of complete strangers, but I've always been impressed by the feeling of community on DKos, and I hope that a few of you will take pity on a college student and help me out. If you don't want to leave a comment, or feel that you'd like to write more than is appropriate for a comment, you can email me at Localgovtstudy@gmail.com. Thank you in advance for your help.