“Another petition! What’s the point?” This objection comes up often. A signature alone can’t repeal a law, force a bureaucrat to back down, stop a movie or immediately change a political decision.
However, such an attitude toward a petition fails to address its true purpose. If petitions were truly useless, governments, lawmakers, the media and polling organizations would never pay any attention to those that gather large numbers of signatures.
Indeed, some petitions become major political events. They can therefore exert real influence, even if they do not immediately bring about the requested changes. Five simple reasons help explain their importance and effectiveness.
1. Petitions Make Opinions Visible
Imagine 50,000 people who disapprove of a decision, each isolated in their own homes. There are many of them, yet they remain politically or socially invisible. Bringing them together through a petition makes their convictions suddenly visible, measurable and public.
The French political scientist, Romain Badouard, describes petitions as “indicators of shifts in public opinion.” They work something like thermometers in a physician’s hands. The thermometer doesn’t cause a fever but, rather, reveals it. A petition doesn’t create an opinion; it brings to light a force that already exists but is scattered. Confronted with pages of signatures, politicians can no longer dismiss that opinion as the reactions of an isolated few.
While a single signature may seem small amid thousands of others, it is also indispensable. Without each of these seemingly small signatures, the tens of thousands that give a petition its strength would simply never exist.
2. Those in Power Look at the Numbers
Let’s be realistic: a petition is neither a law nor a referendum. Even a million signatures do not legally compel a bureaucrat to resign or the legislature to pass a bill. However, that fact alone doesn’t make it useless.
Astute political leaders constantly monitor public opinion. A few isolated protests can be ignored. At the same time, it is much harder to dismiss a protest that brings together thousands of citizens.
Thus, a petition helps bring an issue into the public debate. It provides advocates of the cause with arguments, attracts media attention, encourages other citizens to take action, and shows elected officials that their constituents are paying attention to the issue.
Even when the officials don’t give in, the petition cannot be labeled a failure. Making opposition visible compels officials to assess its size. Keeping an issue firmly in the public debate is already a significant achievement.
3. Victory Starts With Small Steps
Impatient members of the public often make the mistake of judging an action solely by its immediate result. If people sign a petition and a few weeks go by without the desired change, they conclude that “It was all for nothing” and give up the effort.
However, history rarely works that way. When using an axe to cut down a large tree, it often seems that only the final blow fells it. That is an illusion. No one would seriously claim that the previous fifty blows were useless. Each chipped away at the trunk, paving the way for the outcome.
The same is true in public life. Before a law changes, mindsets often need to evolve, and that can be a slow process. Before a government backs down, it must recognize that opposition is growing. Before an idea triumphs, it sometimes takes years to take root in people’s minds.
It is self-defeating to ask only, “Did we win today?” The wise ask instead, “Did we advance our cause?”
4. Petitions Find Those Who Agree
One of the most comforting effects of a petition is that it breaks the isolation. How many people, faced with dire political or cultural positions, ask themselves, “Am I the only one who finds this unacceptable?”
Isolation is discouraging and suggests the battle is already lost. But when a petition gathers thousands of signatures, men and women who don’t know each other discover they share similar concerns and convictions. What seemed like just an individual feeling then becomes a genuine current of public opinion. A petition allows scattered citizens to realize they are not alone.
5. Free People Must Make Their Voices Heard
Finally, there is a deeper reason to sign. Political freedom does not consist of casting a ballot every two or four years and then staying silent until the next election. In a truly free society, citizens must be able to express their convictions on issues that concern the common good and culture, peacefully yet firmly.
His Holiness, Pope Pius XII, attached such importance to genuine public opinion that he called its absence “a disease of social life.” He distinguished the people from the passive masses. He defined a true people as one composed of conscious, responsible individuals capable of judgment. On the contrary, the masses are easily swayed by external influences.
That is why signing a petition is not a trivial act. It signifies a refusal to be silenced and the peaceful exercise of one’s civic responsibility.
When the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) promotes a petition, it does not claim it is a magic wand. It asserts something more reasonable. Before changing laws, the climate must be prepared. A climate is changed when the public is informed, educated and brought together.
This work begins with people willing to say, “No, I disagree publicly” and sign a petition. The next time someone says with a wry smile, “Petitions are useless,” ask them, “Which petition can we be certain will never have any effect?” Then explain, “It’s the one we agree with, but don’t even bother to sign.”
Indeed, institutions change laws, but an informed, courageous, and persistent public can ultimately shape a nation’s fate.
Making A Signature More Effective
After signing a petition, two further actions can make it even more effective.
First, forward the petition to two or three people. If possible, add a few personal words. A recommendation from a friend or even a respected acquaintance can persuade others to join the cause.
Second, if possible, accompany a signature with a donation. A signature publicly affirms a conviction and unites it with those of thousands of others. A donation, on the other hand, helps spread this conviction much more widely.
Petitions don’t spread on their own. Collecting the thousands of signatures that give a petition its true impact takes the effort of many people. E-mails and letters must be printed and sent. Other messages promote the campaign online to reach new households.
When people sign, they become one voice. When they sign and contribute financially to the campaign, they help gather many more voices. That is the difference between personally supporting a cause and helping to amplify its reach.
Thus, the TFP asks its friends and supporters to sign petitions and help gather more signatures. A signature affirms a conviction. A donation gives it wings.
First published on TFP.org.
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