Question

Do the political parties really want us to become more involved? Or is the circle of nonparticipation at work, where the political parties resist efforts at mobilization for fear of mobilizing political opponents too much?

Answer 1

I don't think political parties really want us to become more involved and indeed the circle of nonparticipation is at work because of which political parties refrain from mobilizing the disengaged population. In short, political parties often have incentives in maintaining the status quo and by engaging people more and making them more critical thinker, political parties have more to lose than gain. When people are engaged more, they think more, have access to more information and become more critical to political parties and their ideologies. Therefore, more engaged people demand more changes and political parties have reasons to resists changes.