Turning out to vote is the most common and important act of political participation in any democracy. Voting also less well understood explained empirically than other acts engaged regularly by citizens. Turnout, however, presents a special problem for rational choice theories politics, it taken be paradigmatic example collective action, which, although all may benefit from voting, rarely individual's self-interest vote. This paper begins examining explaining turnout. A basic form models...

While candidates regularly spend much time and effort campaigning on foreign defense policies, the thrust of prevailing scholarly opinion is that voters possess little information weak attitudes these issues, which therefore have negligible impact their voting behavior. We resolve this anomaly by arguing public policies are available cognitively accessible, has perceived clear differences between issues in recent elections, affected public's vote choices. Data indicate conclusions...

A unidimensional spatial model is proposed in this article. Although its formal structure parallels the of electoral competition, examines decisions individuals as they choose whether or not to become activists one two political parties. An individual “calculus participation” developed that similar interpretation voting.” This calculus then generalized by examining conditions may hold for aggregate activism probabilities, and relationship between forms investigated. Some results are...

Since 1960 turnout has declined in presidential elections, and since 1966 it off-year congressional elections. These declines occurred despite several major trends that could have increased electoral participation. An analysis of the eight SRC-CPS election surveys conducted between 1952 1980 six 1958 1978 suggests these may result largely from combined impact two attitudinal trends: weakening party identification declining beliefs about government responsiveness, is, lowered feelings...

▪ Abstract Public opinion is central to representation, democratic accountability, and decision making. Yet, the public was long believed be relatively uninterested in foreign affairs, absent an immediate threat safety welfare. It had become conventional say that “voting ends at water's edge.” We start examination of scholarly understanding role affairs voting low point view. Much subsequent development saw increasing degree holding using attitudes beliefs about among public. Moving parallel...

Voters in multicandidate contests may confront circumstances under which it is their interest to vote for a second- or even lower-ranked candidate. The U.S. electoral system, typically offering choice between only two major contenders, rarely presents opportunities this “sophisticated” voting. In presidential primaries, however, many plausible candidates compete. We investigate the presence of sophisticated voting 1988 using data from National Election Study's Super Tuesday survey. examine...

This study applies the theory of "conditional party government" to interaction between Republican and Appropriations Committee in 104th House, seen context developments since 96th Congress. As expected by theory, we find that relatively homogenous preferences contingent House led them adopt new institutional arrangements enhance powers their leaders, which turn were used advance party's policy goals. Given leadership decided use as one vehicles major change, they Conference sought monitor...

The 1994 congressional elections were dramatic. Republicans won control of the U.S. House, ending longest continuous reign by a single party in nation's history and including defeat sitting Speaker for first time this century. These results caught nearly everyone surprise. Hardly pollster, pundit, scholar, or even Republican leader anticipated such GOP victories House. As dramatic as election returns proved to be, activities within House 104th Congress equally Speakerto-be Newt Gingrich (GA)...

A method of scaling is proposed to estimate the positions candidates and voters on a common issue dimension. The model assumes that occupy true in an space individual level perceptual data arise from this two step process. first consists stochastic component, satisfying standard Gauss Markov assumptions, which reflects misperception. second linear distortion introduced survey situation. Estimates parameters are developed by applying least squares criterion, distributions estimates...

Since its first appearance fifteen years ago, Why Parties? has been essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the nature of American political parties, but in interim, party system undergone some radical changes. In this landmark book, now rewritten new millennium, John H. Aldrich goes beyond clamor arguments over whether parties are resurgence or decline and undertakes a wholesale reexamination foundations system. Surveying critical episodes development - from their formation 1790s...

Journal Article Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America. By John H. Aldrich. (Chicago: University Chicago Press, 1995. xii, 349 pp. Cloth, $48.00, ISBN 0-226-01271-9. Paper, $16.95, 0-226-01272-7.) Get access Ron Formisano Florida, Gainesville, Florida Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American History, Volume 83, Issue 1, June 1996, Pages 184–185, https://doi.org/10.2307/2945504 Published: 01 1996

The level of measurement the dependent variable (nominal, ordinal, interval) crucially affects selection statistical techniques. Conventional wisdom further restricts choice an appropriate technique. In this Workshop paper, we compare three powerful techniques for each levels and sharing, insofar as possible, a similar set assumptions. are ordinary least squares regression intervally measured, probit ordinally discriminant analysis nominally measured variables. assumptions uses technique...

Since 1960 turnout has declined in presidential elections, and since 1966 it off-year congressional elections. These declines occurred despite several major trends that could have increased electoral participation. An analysis of the eight SRC-CPS election surveys conducted between 1952 1980 six 1958 1978 suggests these may result largely from combined impact two attitudinal trends: weakening party identification declining beliefs about government responsiveness, is, lowered feelings...

Based on recent work that suggests voters in proportional representation (PR) systems have incentives to cast strategic votes, the authors hypothesize levels of voting are similar both first-past-the-post (FPTP) and PR systems. Comparing vote intentions majoritarian elections United States, Mexico, Britain, Israel Netherlands, find a substantial proportion desert their most preferred candidate or party patterns across FPTP bear striking similarities. In every election, smaller parties tend...

A rational-choice model is used to account for the decisions of United States Senators run president. The predicts that senators will be more likely president if their relative costs running are low, they have no political liabilities might reduce chances winning, and a propensity take risks, which we measure by past willingness risks in Senate. works well accounting Democrats seek presidency 1972, 1976, 1984, can explain why few Republican ran 1980. predict 99th Congress relatively 1988....

We extend theories of congressional parties and committees to the state legislative setting, using variation among legislatures explore links between elections committees. examine by comparing electoral concentration measures conditional party government. informational partisan com? mittees looking relationship committee representativeness govern? ment. With data from eleven states, we find that competitive sys? tems breed highly polarized legisla? tive parties, these two traits lead representative