Alec Ward | Throw the bums out

Talking Backward | The Justice Department report on Ferguson shows why democratic participation is vital

By Alec Ward 03/17/15 9:00pm

As a sometime student of American politics, I experienced a certain bewilderment when I read the Justice Department’s report on the Ferguson Police Department. The report read like a laundry list of municipal malfeasance, but that in itself wasn’t surprising. What caught my attention most was the systematic nature of Fergusonian exploitation; it was precisely the minoritarian tyranny which, theoretically, should be impossible in a democratic system.

Democracy, particularly American democracy, is specifically tailored to make it difficult for governments to exploit or oppress constituent majorities. The dependence of officials upon voters should mean that governments generally represent and advance the will of their constituent majorities. The more local a government, the more responsive it should be to majority will. Put simply, this is the basic theory of democracy.

The situation in Ferguson was precisely the opposite: the minority-dominant scenario which democracy theoretically prevents. The report makes clear that the mostly white city government systematically and intentionally used the police and courts to extract money from the mostly black population. It was not simply that the government’s composition did not reflect that of the electorate — the government was acting directly against the majority’s interests.

The Ferguson situation represents a striking failure of a democratic system to behave the way it should, and I was curious. With a bit of research, an answer turned up pretty quickly. Voter turnout in Ferguson municipal elections is both low and disproportionate. Predictive data indicates that in Ferguson’s 2013 municipal election, only 6 percent of Ferguson’s black population voted, while 17 percent of its white population did. So although blacks are 67 percent of the population, they were only 47 percent of voters. Whites, although only 29 percent of the population, were 52 percent of voters.

The best explanation I could find as to why this might be is that, like most American municipalities, Ferguson holds its local elections in odd years so as to prevent local campaigns from being overshadowed by national ones. However, this appears to end up reducing turnout. In 2012, turnout was 76 percent overall, with 54 percent of blacks and 55 percent of whites voting, and in 2014 it was 42 percent overall, racial breakdown unknown. Aside from indicating that odd-year elections reduce turnout, these numbers show that Ferguson’s blacks are able to vote in large numbers. That is, there doesn’t seem to be any wide-scale voter suppression or other impediment to registration, turnout has simply been low in municipal elections, as it is nationwide.

I don’t mean to suggest that Ferguson’s black community is politically negligent or is to blame for the mistreatment individuals have suffered at the hands of the local government. All politicians, constituency regardless, have a moral obligation to govern with integrity and compassion, and Ferguson’s elected leaders grossly neglected that obligation. For a democratic system to function as intended, however, citizens must wield the power they possess — the power to elect officials who will represent them and eject those who don’t.

My own hometown, Washington D.C., provides an example of how local democracy can work for black communities in particular. Ever since D.C. was granted home rule in 1974, the city’s historic black majority — which recently became a plurality — has been very politically active and consequently quite successful in getting the city government to advance the black community’s interests. In the 41-year history of home rule, every D.C. mayor has been black. Far be it from me to suggest that D.C. blacks don’t experience police misconduct, but the D.C. police department, as of 2013, was 57 percent black — a far cry from Ferguson’s three black officers.

The political situation in Ferguson is looking up, however. In the 2015 municipal election, to be held in April, four of eight candidates for three open city council seats are black, compared to three black council candidates in the past 120 years. The New York Times reported a 4 percent increase in voter registration since August. The system may be starting to self-correct.

Ferguson has taught America many lessons about where it stands in the sunrise of the 21st century. Not least among these is that political participation on every level remains just as vital as it has ever been, and perhaps even more so than before.

ALEC WARD is a College sophomore from Washington, D.C., studying history. His email address is alecward@sas.upenn.edu. “Talking Backward” appears every Wednesday.

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