Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Community members should be aware of how policies are implemented. The topic of this research project is political empowerment. Through this project I aim to learn and inform about how political awareness and political participation is built. Political Empowerment will be classified as the awareness and participation of policy issues. If constituents are not aware of government officials it will be difficult for communities to demand resources they require. The purpose of this study is to identify the production of political awareness and political participation. Politicians are vocal on various issues during election times. However, communities should be able to hold their representatives accountable for issues which are not brought up to the surface.

Being aware of how political awareness and participation is produce is necessary for citizens to demand change in their community. I will be examining how to improve political awareness and participation by interviewing staff from political offices and staffers from non-profit organization. Participants in this study consist of an interview conducted face-to-face or through a telephone call. Those eligible to be interviewed for this study are staff at Illinois Congressional offices, staff at Chicago Alderman’s offices, and staff at non-profit organizations. The interviews will consist of questions pertaining to participant’s political awareness and involvement to see how their work place helps to produce it. This one-time interview will take 30-45 minutes and will be recorded and transcribed.

Few researchers have examined the connections between political offices and community organizations in producing political awareness and participation. This is important to understand in order to produce political empowerment and bring about local change to issues such as education, housing, and crime. This project aims to examine the connection between the government, at the federal and local level, with community organizations when it comes to producing political awareness and participation. To examine this I will interview three congressional offices, six Aldermen’s offices, and six community organizations to explore ways which politicians represent their constituents. To study the connections between political offices and community organizations I have created a set of questions to use as an interview guide that focus around topics such as elections and local laws. Communities should be prepared with the knowledge in case they are being underrepresented by local and federal politicians. If community members are politically aware and active they will be able to demand resources other than during election times.