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''The American Voter'', published in 1960, is a seminal study of
"The American Voter"
(blog, 2 November 2015)Campbell, A., Converse, P.E., Miller, W.E., & Stokes, D.E. (1980
''The American Voter''.
University of Chicago Press. This theory of voter choice became known as the Michigan Model. It was later extended to the United Kingdom by David Butler and Donald Stokes in ''Political change in Britain''. ''The American Voter'' established a baseline for most of the scholarly debate that has followed in the decades since. Criticism has followed along several different lines. Some argue that Campbell and his colleagues set the bar too high, expecting voters to be far more sophisticated and rational than is reasonable. Some scholars, most notably V. O. Key, Jr., in ''The Responsible Electorate'', have argued, in part based on reinterpretation of the same data, that voters are more rational than ''The American Voter'' gives them credit for. His famous line "Voters are not fools" summarizes this view. Successors in the Michigan school have argued that in relying heavily on data from the 1956 presidential election, ''The American Voter'' drew conclusions that were not accurate over time; in particular, partisan identification has weakened in the years since 1956, a phenomenon sometimes known as
''The new American voter'' (pp. 140–46).
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
''The American Voter'', published in 1960, is a seminal study of voting
Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...
behavior in the United States, authored by Angus Campbell, Philip Converse
Philip Ernest Converse (November 17, 1928 – December 30, 2014) was an American political scientist. He was a professor in political science and sociology at the University of Michigan who conducted research on public opinion, survey research, an ...
, Warren Miller, and Donald E. Stokes, colleagues at the University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
. Among its controversial conclusions, based on one of the first comprehensive studies of election survey data (what eventually became the National Election Studies
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
), is that most voters cast their ballots primarily on the basis of partisan identification (which is often simply inherited from their parents), and that independent voters are actually the least involved in and attentive to politics.Witten, D. (2015"The American Voter"
(blog, 2 November 2015)Campbell, A., Converse, P.E., Miller, W.E., & Stokes, D.E. (1980
''The American Voter''.
University of Chicago Press. This theory of voter choice became known as the Michigan Model. It was later extended to the United Kingdom by David Butler and Donald Stokes in ''Political change in Britain''. ''The American Voter'' established a baseline for most of the scholarly debate that has followed in the decades since. Criticism has followed along several different lines. Some argue that Campbell and his colleagues set the bar too high, expecting voters to be far more sophisticated and rational than is reasonable. Some scholars, most notably V. O. Key, Jr., in ''The Responsible Electorate'', have argued, in part based on reinterpretation of the same data, that voters are more rational than ''The American Voter'' gives them credit for. His famous line "Voters are not fools" summarizes this view. Successors in the Michigan school have argued that in relying heavily on data from the 1956 presidential election, ''The American Voter'' drew conclusions that were not accurate over time; in particular, partisan identification has weakened in the years since 1956, a phenomenon sometimes known as
dealignment Dealignment, in political science, is a trend or process whereby a large portion of the electorate abandons its previous partisan affiliation, without developing a new one to replace it. It is contrasted with political realignment.
Many scholars a ...
(see political realignment
A political realignment, often called a critical election, critical realignment, or realigning election, in the academic fields of political science and political history, is a set of sharp changes in party ideology, issues, party leaders, regional ...
).
''The American Voter'' has served as a springboard from which many modern political scientists form their views on voting behavior even though the study only represents one specific time in one particular place.
Warren Miller (d. 1999) and Merrill Shanks from the University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
have revisited many of these questions in ''The New American Voter'' (1996), which argues against the dealignment notion, preferring the term "nonalignment" based on their conclusion that the decline in partisan identification is mostly a matter of new voters not aligning with a party rather than older voters abandoning their previous allegiances.Miller, W.E., Shanks, J.M., & Shapiro, R.Y. (1996''The new American voter'' (pp. 140–46).
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
References
American Voter, The American Voter, The American Voter, The American political books {{polisci-book-stub