The most obvious measure of citizen participation in the democratic process is voter turnout -- how many people vote and who they are.

The numbers can be measured in various ways: by the percentage of registered voters who actually voted, by the percentage of those citizens old enough to vote who voted or by the percentage of eligible voters who voted. Regardless of which metric of eligibility you use, the United States has one of the lowest voter turnouts of any of the comparator countries, while Australia and Belgium have the highest. Read More