by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright October 2015
Feeling enfranchised is one of the more important thinking elements need for social peace in a community. The more the community members feel enfranchised the more they will support orderly change and the less they will support crime in all its incarnations.
Given its pervasive importance this is a thinking style that doesn't get talked about nearly enough when people are making plans for their communities. We go to the trouble to prepare Environmental Impact Statements, we should also prepare Enfranchisement Impact Statements.
Enfranchisement consists of two feelings:
o The feeling that the community is paying attention to a person
o The feeling that what a person does affects the well-being of the community
When both of these feelings are high, a person is feeling well-enfranchised and they will do their best to fit in and serve the community. Likewise, such a person won't tolerate those around them performing crime or other destructive activities. But crime is different than progress, such a person can support disruptive activities if these are going to bring more prosperity in the future.
When much of the community is feeling enfranchised then community members are also feeling cooperative. They are ready to cooperate with other community members, and they will be tolerant when other community members are proposing big, disruptive changes that will bring future prosperity. A textbook example of this would be supporting putting a new railroad though a small town in the 1800's. This will bring lots of changes to how the town is laid out, and lots of inconvenience for a while, but it will bring lots of prosperity in following years as well. If community members are feeling highly enfranchised, they will support this, and the project will complete fairly smoothly. If feelings of disenfranchisement are high, such as project will cause acrimony instead of enthusiasm, and when things go wrong there is a lot of "I told you so." feeling rather than, "OK... Let's get it fixed." feeling.
The vice of strong disenfranchising feelings is lack of cooperation and instead a supporting of many styles of community betrayal, such as gangs, crime and corruption. A high-profile example of low enfranchisement feelings being expressed was the protesting and violence that went on in Ferguson, MO in 2014/15. Another was the scandals around Boston's Big Dig project to put in an expressway through the city center. An even more extreme example is the feelings of Palestinians living in Israel and the surrounding areas since the creation of the Israeli state following World War II.
The level of enfranchisement the people of a community are feeling can explain a lot of things such as the level of toleration and cooperation a community is experiencing. Conversely, strong feelings of disenfranchisement will track the crime and violence rates a community is experiencing.
This is an important thinking style to be keeping track of.
-- The End --