Where have all the voters gone? / Martin P. Wattenberg.

By:

Wattenberg, Martin P, 1956-

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2002.Description: 1 online resource (x, 200 pages)Content type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9780674044951
0674044959
067400938X
9780674009387

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Where have all the voters gone?.DDC classification:

324.973 21

LOC classification:

JK1976 .W38 2002

Other classification:

89.57
MG 70400
MG 70480

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

A worldwide turnout problem -- Turnout in the American states -- Types of individuals who vote -- The new generation gap -- Who votes does make a difference -- How voting is like taking an SAT test -- Are negative ads to blame? -- How to improve U.S. turnout rates: lessons from abroad.

Action note:

digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve

Summary: As the confusion over the ballots in Florida in 2000 demonstrated, American elections are complex and anything but user-friendly. This phenomenon is by no means new, but with the weakening of political parties in recent decades and the rise of candidate-centered politics, the high level of complexity has become ever more difficult for many citizens to navigate. Thus the combination of complex elections and the steady decline of the party system has led to a decline in voter turnout. In this timely book, Martin Wattenberg confronts the question of what low participation rates mean for democracy. At the individual level, turnout decline has been highest among the types of people who most need to have electoral decisions simplified for them through a strong party system--those with the least education, political knowledge, and life experience. As Wattenberg shows, rather than lamenting how many Americans fail to exercise their democratic rights, we should be impressed with how many arrive at the polls in spite of a political system that asks more of a typical person than is reasonable. Meanwhile, we must find ways to make the American electoral process more user-friendly.

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Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Use copy Restrictions unspecified star MiAaHDL

Electronic reproduction. [Place of publication not identified] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. MiAaHDL

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. MiAaHDL

http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212

digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL

As the confusion over the ballots in Florida in 2000 demonstrated, American elections are complex and anything but user-friendly. This phenomenon is by no means new, but with the weakening of political parties in recent decades and the rise of candidate-centered politics, the high level of complexity has become ever more difficult for many citizens to navigate. Thus the combination of complex elections and the steady decline of the party system has led to a decline in voter turnout. In this timely book, Martin Wattenberg confronts the question of what low participation rates mean for democracy. At the individual level, turnout decline has been highest among the types of people who most need to have electoral decisions simplified for them through a strong party system--those with the least education, political knowledge, and life experience. As Wattenberg shows, rather than lamenting how many Americans fail to exercise their democratic rights, we should be impressed with how many arrive at the polls in spite of a political system that asks more of a typical person than is reasonable. Meanwhile, we must find ways to make the American electoral process more user-friendly.

English.

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