Abstract

In colonial America, the political participation of the community's small number of wealthy Christian white male adult privileges. Citizens the right to vote by all kinds of restrictions, including property qualifications, qualifications religion, race restrictions, gender restrictions, age limit, place of residence and residence restrictions, and even conduct restrictions. In the later course of historical development, social movements in the war and under the impact of unreasonable restrictions on the right to vote was gradually abolished, the right to vote privileges enjoyed by a few people into the universal enjoyment of all adult Americans have a right. The United States abolished the property qualifications to vote, to establish the right to vote in adult male walking in front of the world, yet it is the last true universal suffrage of the developed capitalist countries. However, in the contemporary United States, the right to vote to expand at the same time, the enthusiasm of citizens and extent of political participation has continued to decrease. This is a U.S. citizen the right to vote to expand the process of the emergence of a thought-provoking paradox. In colonial America, suffrage was privilege enjoyed by a minority of white male propertied Christians. There existed various qualifications of the privilege, like property, religion, race, sex, age, residence, and even moral behavior. Under the impact of wars and social movements in the course of American history, unreasonable qualifications had been eliminated and the suffrage as a privilege has become a universal right enjoyed by every adult American. The United States took the lead in abolishing the property qualifications and in the establishment of manhood suffrage. However , it is the last developed country to realize universal suffrage. In contemporary America, the extension of the suffrage does not always deepen the extent of political participation. The percentage of the citizens participating in the presidential elections has been incessantly decreased