s (PG) or social movements, organizations which I shall explain below. Even wearing a badge or a sticker, signing a petition or donating money to support a group constitutes political participation.
             In the last fifty years, electoral participation has indeed been falling. Voter turnout has declined in all Western European countries between 1980 and 2002. The most significant numbers are Portugal with a decline of 15% in its Lower House election, from 78% to 63%, France with 13% (73% to 60%) and Great Britain with 15% again (74% to 59%). (Numbers provided in Leduc 2003: 2)
             For the purpose of this essay, I will only mention some reasons for these developments here:
             Voter apathy is an oft-used term to explain low voter turnout. Apathetic people believe their views won't be heard anyway, or that politicians won't do anything useful for them. To them, politicians appear to not connect with "ordinary people". They are either deeply disappointed by or simply not interested in politics. Some non-voters are detached from politics: they are politically interested but believe the system does not need their vote because nothing is going to change anyway. A more positive explanation for detachment is the belief that the system is stable enough to cope with fewer votes. Surely, the presidential election in France proves this to be wrong. Extreme
             ...