6. Write a short essay explaining the methods through which citizens can participate in their government in the United States. Be sure to explain why voting and other forms of political participation are important to the U. S. Government. Finally, analyze how citizens can use these methods to bring about positive changes in their communities.

People may participate in politics in many ways. They can write their Representative or Senator, or work in for a candidate or political party. They can make presentations to their local school board or city council, or call the police to complain about the neighbor's dog. Partly because of our federalist system, people have many opportunities to participate in our democracy on federal, state, and local levels. Some forms of participation are more common than others and some citizens participate more than others, but almost everyone has a voice in government.

In the United States, there are no processes of citizen initiatives at the federal level, but 27 of the 50 states have some kind of direct democracy system (changing the regulation and scope of one state to another). At the local level, approximately half of the cities have a system of binding citizen initiatives.

Between 1904 and 2000 almost 2,000 referendums initiated by the citizenship were convened. In 1996, in the states with citizens' initiative mechanisms, 96 referendums were held, against the more than 14,000 laws and resolutions passed by the representatives of those states.