Women, Political Action and Political Participation

The intriguing thing about the study of political behavior is that it focuses our attention directly on “the people” in a political system. Without the existence and actions of people a political system has no meaning — it could not exist. There have been attempts to break this rule, but they have not been successful. There is a spot under the North Sea off the coast of England, for example, that continued to have parliamentary representation long after the sea had buried what was once the important port of Dunwich. This was one of the famous “rotten boroughs”. This make-believe borough, however, required the political action of real people to have political meaning, even if the real people had to act in rowboats.