In 1835, French politician and philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville wrote a book entitled “Democracy in America” about the then young American Republic. While touring the small towns of New England, he saw a people engaged with their governments as responsible citizens. “The humblest individual who is called upon to co-operate in the government of society acquires a certain degree of self-respect; and as he possesses authority, he can command the services of minds much more enlightened than his own,” he wrote.

This spirit of participation, de Tocqueville contended, is what allowed for the stability of American democracy and the functioning of an egalitarian society. For the past week on Euclid Avenue, people who no doubt believe in our democratic institutions and who want to protect our democracy have been campaigning to register voters. These “Get Out The Vote” campaigns are a staple of community engagement in America carried out by age-old civic institutions like the American Legion. During their 1920 convention in Cleveland, the Legion began their now century-old campaign to “[promote] an informed populace, participation in our government, and involvement in its electoral process.”

But these voter registration drives have sacrificed the first of those ideals in favor of the latter two. Our institutions do not survive on participation trophies alone. A functioning democracy requires its citizens to be engaged members, not merely participants. “A nation, as a Society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his Society,” Thomas Jefferson wrote. Two-thirds of Americans do not know the name of their district’s congressman. One-third can not name all three branches of government. How can we expect people to engage in government in a personally responsible way if they do not even know who or what they are voting for or against?

The reality is that many people lead busy lives and have neither the interest nor the time to engage in politics. If people choose to dedicate their efforts to their families or their jobs and not to reading The Atlantic, for example, that is a fair choice. We should not be pressuring them into a polling booth to pull a lever based on surface-level, highly-filtered news sources such as social media.

There is likely a more prosaic motivation behind many of these voter registration drives, no matter how neutral they appear. For many years, Democrats had an advantage among voters who were not engaged. As Democratic political pundit Matthew Yglesias writes, “That conventional wisdom was true during the Bush and Obama presidencies … because people with low levels of political knowledge were a Dem-leaning constituency.” It is a convenient belief that your party would win if only more people voted because the “true American” believes what you believe. Unfortunately for Democrats, this is no longer true. Low-propensity voters, those who rarely show up to the polls, are more likely to vote for Republicans. A purely utilitarian Democrat would be doing everything in their power to keep people home if they want to win elections.

Encouraging participation is not only insufficient, it is counterproductive. In many ways, today’s America is more politically active than ever. More Americans are donating to political campaigns and voter turnout is trending upwards. Yet, our politics has only gotten more divisive. There are fewer candidates for office on a local level than ever, and trust in government is at an all time low. We need better participation, not more.

Perhaps the solution to engaged participation lies in explaining both sides of political debates at the voting booth or in improving civics education in schools. Or perhaps democracy is a skill we need to practice at the local level. De Tocqueville thought that the security of our republic lay in municipal government. “Local assemblies of citizens constitute the strength of free nations,” he wrote, “Town-meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people’s reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it.” Americans could start by learning their local government officials’ names, maybe then they will be ready to go to the polls.