Showing papers on "Voting behavior published in 1972"

Social participation and voting turnout: a multivariate analysis *

Abstract: As an explanation of voting turnout, the social participation theory argues that involvement by individuals in nonpolitical social organizations such as voluntary associations community affairs, and churches will in turn mobilize them to become politically active. Survey data from Indianapolis show marked correlations between all the above forms of social participation and voting turnout in three recent elections. The partial correlations for each of these measures, controlling the others, remain significant, indicating that each form of participation has independent effects on voting. This is not true with informal interaction among friends and neighbors, however. Evidence for inferring a causal linkage from social participation to voting turnout is found in the fact that most respondents belonged to voluntary associations prior to these elections. Finally, the relationship between social participation and voting remains moderately strong after the compounding variables of age, education, political contacts through the mass media and political parties, and political orientations such as political interest and party identification are all held constant. The mean multiple R with all predictor variables is .58. POLITICAL democracy assumes that citizens will exercise their franchise on election day. Yet millions in the United States regularly fail to vote. Presidential elections typically attract only about 60 percent of the voting-age population (the estimated figure for the 1968 Presidential election was 62 percent); off-year Congressional elections generally draw less than 50 percent (the estimated figure for 1966 was 46 percent); and separate state and local elections usually have even lower turnouts. Why so many people fail to vote is a critical problem for democratic political theory and for understanding political behavior. A host of empirical studies, beginning with Merriam and Gosnell's (1924) examination of the 1923 Chicago mayoral election, have investigated relationships between voting turnout and various social and political variables, to discover what kinds of people fail to vote. This research has established that voting turnout in the United States is commonly related to such factors as sex, age, race, marital status, religious preference, education, occupational status, income, membership and participation in voluntary associations, exposure to the mass media, political involvement of one's parents, contacts by political parties, political discussions with friends, interest in politics, strength of party preference, and feelings of political efficacy.' In recent years such writers as Lane (1959), Lipset (1954, 1960), and IMiilbrath (1965) have offered numerous theoretical explanations of the relationships between these factors and voting turnout, but none of them have subsequently been adequately tested. This paper focuses on just one of these competing theoretical explanations, which I term the "social participation" theory, but subjects it to rigorous empirical analysis. This analysis proceeds in three stages: (a) determining relationships between voting turnout and various measures of social participtaion, both separately and in combination; (b) exploring the theory's relevance as a causal argument; and (c)

The Impact of Formal Selection Processes on the Characteristics of Judges - Reconsidered

Abstract: Students of the judicial process have focused considerable attention on the relationship between judges' background characteristics and their voting behavior on collegial courts. The argument for such a focus is that background characteristics are usually indicative of particular socialization processes and that these processes produce certain attitudes which are often responsible, directly or indirectly, for the judges' votes. Thus these characteristics can be viewed, in the aggregate, as predictive of judges' behavior-at least in certain types of cases. Research into the connection between background characteristics and judicial voting behavior has produced some positive results. Most frequently noted is the relationship between partisan affiliation and direction of vote in a wide variety of cases by judges on state supreme courts and federal courts of appeals (Ulmer, 1963; Goldman, 1966; Nagel, 1970: Chapter 14). Religious differences have also been found to be related to judges' voting behavior in some types of caseJ (Vines, 1964; Goldman, 1966; Nagel, 1970: Chapter 18). Two scholars have found that judges' career patterns have been related to their voting behavior (Danelski, 1964; Vines, 1965) and there is some evidence linking judges' educational experience with their behavior (Nagel, 1970: Chapter 18). Some scholars, investigating the relationship between dissensus on collegial courts and variation in judges' background characteristics, have offered evidence supporting (in part at least) the proposition that the latter is productive of the former (Schmidhauser, 1962; Ulmer, 1970; Jaros and Canon, 1971).1 Such linkages, however, areby no means solidly established. The investigators noted above, particularly Goldman (1966) and Nagel (1970: Chapter 18), as well as others (Bowen, 1965; Grossman, 1967; Adamany, 1969) have noted the tenuous nature of these findings and have in some cases offered contrary evidence.

Political participation and income level: An exchange

Abstract: Let us first consider voting behavior. Frey's explanation seems to imply one (or more) of several things: (1) that high income individuals are more efficient in the consummation of voting, where the act includes getting to the polling place, deciding upon whom to vote for, etc.; (2) that voting involves activities somewhat akin to those undertaken by high income individuals in the course of their daily business; or (3) that high income occupations involve relatively higher mental effort and lower physical effort than low income occupations.

Computer simulations of voting behavior

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Presidential Preferences and Freedom-Equality Value Patterns in the 1968 American Campaign

Abstract: (1972). Presidential Preferences and Freedom-Equality Value Patterns in the 1968 American Campaign. The Journal of Social Psychology: Vol. 88, No. 2, pp. 207-212.

Ecological Inference and Electoral Analysis

Abstract: Ecological Inference and Electoral Analysis This paper examines the utility of a relatively new statistical method for studying the relationships between individuals' sociological characteristics and their voting behavior during periods when only aggregate data are available. Almost all of the propositions relating sociological factors and voting behavior are based on the post-I940 period when sample surveys began providing reliable individual-level data. Yet three decades constitute an extremely weak foundation for generalizations and, in order to have as large a data base as possible underlying our generalizations, we must extend our studies of individual voting behavior back into time. Moreover, it is clear that certain large-scale transformations in sociological groups' voting preferences take several decades to work themselves out. If we are to gain an adequate understanding of the dynamics of voting behavior over long stretches of time, we must be able to estimate the individual-level relationships from aggregate data. As Robinson has shown, we cannot directly infer individual relationships from aggregate ones. The fact that a certain set of geographical areas with a certain pattern of demographic and social characteristics behaves in a certain way cannot be construed as meaning that individuals in those areas possessing most or all of the various characteristics all behave in the same manner. Even though, for example, districts with a high proportion of black residents tend to return large Democratic majorities, there is still no airtight logic, no matter how great the suspicion, for inferring that blacks tend to vote Democratic. Fortunately, devices for circumventing the ecological fallacy have been developed.2 The one we will examine here is Goodman's technique, which uses ecological regression coefficients to estimate individual voting proportions.3 To understand how Goodman's technique

Religious Affiliation as a Predictor of Voting Behavior in Abortion Reform Legislation

Abstract: In this research religious affiliation is taken as an independent variable and an examination is made of the voting behavior on abortion reform legislation of members of two sessions of the state legislature of a western state which has large groups of Catholics, Mormons, and Protestants-religious groups with differences on the abortion issue. As expected, knowledge of the religious affiliation of the legislators allows better prediction 'of such voting behavior than constituency, party, or age, and controlling for these three variables affects the size of the association only slightly and occasionally. The effect of the religious affiliation variable is particularly dramatized in the shift of Mormon lower house members' votes from 1967 to 1969, a time period during which the Mormon Church made official statements against abortion reform legislation. Ramifications and alternative explanations of the data are presented.

Locus of Control, Political Attitudes, and Voting Behavior in a College-Age Population:

Abstract: Rotter's (1966) I-E Scale and Mirels' (1970) Political Activity Factor derived from that scale were shown to have no significant value in predicting the voting behavior or political attitudes of 18...

The new politics meets the old rhetoric: New directions in campaign communication research

Abstract: Because of conceptual and methodological limitations, studies of campaign speaking and of voting behavior have failed to confront the issues raised by the innovative communication methods of the “new politics.” To overcome these limitations, researchers should employ an expansionistic view of campaign rhetoric, adopt a functional perspective in analyzing specimens of campaign communication and strategy, and draw their critical standards for evaluation from the voters themselves.

The Evolution of Chilean Voting Patterns: A Re-examination of Some Old Assumptions

Abstract: The election of Dr. Salvador Allende Gossens as President of Chile has stimulated a renewal of interest in the study of that most complex of Chilean phenomena, the electoral appeal of its political parties. This study attempts an analysis of two related questions: to what extent does the appeal of Chile's major parties correspond with socio-economic and demographic cleavages in the society? Can an analysis of aggregate census and electoral data tell us anything about the organizational basis of party appeal? Several assumptions about Chilean voting behavior have emerged

Participation and efficacy: aspects of peasant involvement in political mobilization.

Abstract: The important questions appear to be how and under what conditions peasants participate significantly in politics and what difference such participation makes to them. Although there can be many possible consequences of participation focus in this disucession is on national political efficacy. The general definition of political efficacy is "the feeling that an individual political action does have or can have an impact upon the political process . . . ." Data has been collected in an effort to clarify this subject particularly the relationship between political participation and political efficacy. Attention has been concentrated on 2 countries which have experienced an upsurge in rural political activity since World War 2 - Colombia and Venezuela. The data for both countries reveal that peasant political participation if of a high order particularly in Venezuela. The surveys also showed the existence of a rather high level of political efficacy. What most differentiates Colombia and Venezuela in the data is the fact that there has been a revolution in Venezuela which has lifted up the lowest stratum of peasants and in Colombia there has not meaning that most participating peasants are efficacious in Venezuela while efficacy tends to accrue only to high-status peasants in Colombia. Between the 2 countries there are 2 types of national political efficacy: "direct" efficacy - the feeling that an individual can influence national government decisions directly by himself or herself - and "mediated political efficacy" - a person feels that he or she can influence government because of an instrumental relationship with a network of mediators who are influential in the local and national political systems. There is a need for further research; researchers must work to understand the significance of the response and its meaning within its particular sociocultural matrix.

Ideology, Social Structure, and the Yorty-Bradley Mayoral Election

Abstract: The Los Angeles mayoral election of June 1969 involved some of the major social issues of our times—racism, law and order, social protest. This study, consisting of a sample of 461 white adults, investigates the separate and combined effects of five variables upon the vote: (1) prejudice toward blacks, (2) Troubled American Beliefs, composed of law and order, anti-communism, and patriotism, (3) campaign issues, (4) socioeconomic status, (5) age. Major findings are that Troubled American Beliefs, prejudice, and campaign issues have strong and independent effects upon voting behavior. Troubled American Beliefs are more, important than either socioeconomic status or age in influencing the vote. Theoretical perspectives employed are the integration of ideological systems, working class social conservatism, and the political generation thesis.

Indicators of political development

Abstract: Summary Development implies goals and the positing of goals requires values. Economists have generally agreed that the increase of wealth (or perhaps welfare) is the proper object of economic development. Political scientists, probably happily, have no similar agreement in regard to the appropriate goal for political development. Moreover, it is doubtful that the various aspects of political change are located along a single continuum. This is an empirical question but investigation ought to begin at least with provision for an n‐dimensional space. Finally, political scientists should concentrate on political change that has too often been neglected in favour of economic and purely social change.

Voters, Parties, and Elections: Quantitative Essays in the History of American Popular Voting Behavior

Abstract: THE NATURE OF THINGS is a celebration of the relationship between poetry and the New Zealand landscape. It matches a wide range of poems, that in some way evoke or describe our landscape, with images from the pre-eminent New Zealand photographer Craig Potton. The poems have been selected and the introduction written by James Brown, one of New Zealand's leading contemporary poets THE NATURE OF THINGS includes work from many of the central figures of New Zealand poetry, both historical and contemporary, to create a hugely appealing, accessible and original anthology of New Zealand poetry.

Leadership Perception & Voting Behavior in the Nonpartisan Legislature

Abstract: Harlan Hahn's recent discussion of leadership in the Iowa legislature represents one of the first attempts to correlate leadership perceptions of legislators with actual behavior.1 A number of interesting conclusions and hypotheses emerged from the study which add to our understanding of the internal power relationships within legislative bodies. In particular, the one-party context of the Iowa House of Representatives allowed Hahn to examine the relationship between leadership and voting behavior in a body without strong party cohesion. It was discovered that, although important intraparty and factional leadership structures appeared, leadership perception was not limited to these kinds of structured bloc relationships. Representatives who nominated leaders from outside of their party or factional grouping were found to share the attitudinal and voting preferences of the "external" leaders they selected. Thus major departures from normal party or factional voting patterns could be identified by examining the interrelationships between key legislative issues and leadership perception. Implicit in Hahn's analysis is the proposition that in a legislature without stable party or factional alignments voting behavior and leadership perception will reflect shared attitudes on specific parts of the body's total policy agenda. This research note builds upon Hahn's analysis by examining leadership perception and its relationship to voting in a legislative setting almost totally free of party or pre-existing factional alignments. While undertaking a comparative study of recent state constitutional conventions we became intrigued by the internal political process of the Maryland Constitutional Convention (I967-I968). The Maryland Convention was of special interest as a legislative research laboratory. The delegates were selected by a nonpartisan electoral system and the Convention itself was organized internally on a consciously nonpartisan, almost antiparty basis. Delegates were seated alphabetically in the chambers to minimize party or regional coalescing. The Convention possessed all of the characteristics of a de novo deliberative body-without the traditions and backlog of behavior patterns that characterize most legislatures-composed of delegates whose only cues to behavior would

The Political Science Profession, Political Knowledge and Public Policy

Abstract: The political impact of the knowledge generated by political scientists is determined only in part by their ideological preferences, whether these be implicit or explicit. What the profession does in its public policy role, and the values it sustains or neglects, is structured not merely by the intentions of scholars themselves, but also by the nature of their milieu: by the &dquo;knowledge market,&dquo; the &dquo;multiversity,&dquo; the &dquo;knowledgeable society.&dquo; 1 . The analysis which follows does not purport to deal with all of the difficult problems of power and knowledge facing society and the profession. Nor does it purport to provide a substantive &dquo;code&dquo; of professional ethics which will necessarily render political science more virtuous with regard to the crisis agenda of American politics. What is offered is an examination of the internal processes of the American political science profession and of their links to the political system. This examination assumes a more occupational than ideological perspective. The frame of reference is that of a large, highly structured