Amongst the rising inequality, BGSU Votes, a non-partisan organization that focuses on increasing the political engagement of campus members, is hosting “I Heart Democracy Week” which will focus on informing students about democracy and ways they can participate in the Union until Thursday. 

Rising pressure to revise the UK’s Public Order Bill, which increases police power and criminalizes disruptive protest tactics, addresses a growing number of politically-engaged persons who identify as being concerned with current political structures, including the possibility of limited freedoms, according to a Jan. 17 CNN article. 

“I Heart Democracy Week” began Tuesday, Feb. 14, amid some students and staff who said they are apprehensive to trust the current direction of the United States government.

BGSU sophomore and criminal justice major Kelsey Cox said she feels the current direction of politics will not be beneficial if it diminishes the ability to protest.

“I feel that protests are a good thing, and the government should not focus on taking away the ways we can represent ourselves,” said Cox.

Other students like McKenna Payne, a sophomore at BGSU said she feels the government has recently struggled to provide enough focus to certain topics.

“I feel that they [the United States government] are getting better in some ways but then there are things we don’t focus on enough and end up losing track of,” she said.

These reflections are not just among students on campus.

BGSU Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Stefan Fritsch said a Democracy must have certain foundational aspects to properly function, especially the right to assemble. He said that sometimes, legitimate political concerns can be discredited when controversial issues are associated with political violence.

“I think we are having a rough moment with democracy these days because, in a lot of countries, people are fed up with the way the world works right now. They are looking for resolutions and falling prey to promises that cannot be delivered,” he said.

The World Inequality Lab is responsible for the collection of global inequality data. They have emphasized that since the 1980s, deregulation and liberalization have factored into the rise of global inequalities.

The 2022 World Inequality Report  stated, “Certain countries have experienced spectacular increases in inequality (including the US, Russia and India) while others (European countries and China) have experienced relatively smaller rises. These differences confirm that inequality is not inevitable, it is a political choice.”

Fritsch is familiar with the politics that are factored into global inequality.

“Democracy, like any political system, gets legitimized in two ways. A fair and free election and in the outputting results of the government, and that is one of the major challenges of democracies,” said Fritsch. “If you don’t address inequalities, you are not only endangering your political system, you are fundamentally also contributing to global instability.”

BGSU Votes’ Vote Everywhere Ambassador Maureen Freeman said BGSU Votes plans to focus on a social media campaign on their Instagram where they post informative stories discussing topics of what a democracy is, voting poll volunteer opportunities, where people can register to vote and how to update their voter information.

More information on the BGSU “I Heart Democracy Week” will be added to the BGSU events website at events.bgsu.edu, as well as the BGSU Votes Instagram.