Why We Feel Powerless? How Income, Education and Race Influence Political Alienation within the United States
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Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2005
Type of Work
Department
Sociology
Program
Bachelor's Degree
Citation of Original Publication
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Collection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.
Abstract
This piece of work was a research project for the methods course in sociology. We were given the opportunity to research any topic of interest using the General Social Survey, a national survey administered to about 1,200 people across the United States. What I found to be the most rewarding and exciting was the fact that we were using real data; I was doing real research for the first time. The topic of political alienation grew out of personal curiosity. I wanted to try and understand why people feel alienated from a political system of a country whose rhetoric glorifies the democratic process. I wanted to understand what affects this sense of powerlessness and alienation; and in finding those influences, what can we learn about ourselves and, more importantly, what can we learn from the system of American politics - who is left out, who is included, who suffers and who benefits; what can be learned about the place in which we live, interact and operate? What I discovered, both through the actual research process as well as the conclusions that were drawn, altered the way in which I think, the way in which I question, and the way in which I continually attempt to understand the functions and consequences of social inequalities in this country.