The Myth Of The Independent Voter

Author : Bruce E. Keith
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 9780520912236
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Myth of the Independent Voter written by Bruce E. Keith and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1992-06-17 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few events in American politics over the past two decades have generated more attention than the increasing number of voters calling themselves Independent. By the early 1970s Independents outnumbered Republicans, according to many eminent experts on voting behavior. Yet the authors of this incisive new commentary on American politics claim that most of this widespread speculation on declining party affiliation is simply wrong. They contend that most so-called Independents lean strongly toward one of the two parties and resemble—in all important respects—either Democrats or Republicans. Contrary to expert opinion, only a small segment of voters are truly "independent" of either major party. Based on the most up-to-date 1990 data, The Myth of the Independent Voter provides a roadmap of the political arena for the general reader and scholar alike. Debunking conventional wisdom about voting patterns and allaying recent concerns about electoral stability and possible third party movements, the authors uncover faulty polling practices that have resulted in a skewed sense of the American voting population. Demonstrating that most of what has been written about Independents for more than thirty years is myth, this challenging book offers a trenchant new understanding of the party system, voting behavior, and public opinion.

Author : Theresa Amato
Publisher : ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN 13 : 1459600010
Total Pages : 722 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Grand Illusion written by Theresa Amato and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-08 with total page 722 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the national campaign manager for Ralph Nader's historic runs for president in 2000 and 2004, Theresa Amato had a rare ringside role in two of the most hotly contested presidential elections this country has seen. In Grand Illusion, she gives u...

Author : Jacqueline S. Salit
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1137072555
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Independents Rising written by Jacqueline S. Salit and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revealing look at how independent voters have been upending the political establishment for thirty years – and how they'll decide the future of American politics. In a political system where two parties reign supreme, 40% of Americans consider themselves neither Democrats nor Republicans, but independents. Independents elected President Barack Obama in 2008 and then, in a seeming reversal, gave control of Congress to the Republicans in 2010. But who are these independents? Angry moderates? Frustrated ideologues? The base for the third party? Reformers or revolutionaries? Jacqueline Salit has spent 30 years as an insider in this growing movement of outsiders. She recounts the little-known history of this volatile force as old political institutions and categories are becoming irrelevant – even repugnant – to many Americans. An architect of unorthodox left/right coalitions within the Perot movement and Reform Party, and manager of Michael Bloomberg's three New York mayoral campaigns on the Independence Party line, Salit explores how these unclaimed voters are not only deciding elections, but reshaping the political landscape. With a surprising cast of characters – from the famous to the unknown – Salit argues that the failure to heed this movement against partisanship (and even parties) puts political careers at risk and damages essential features of American democracy. She reveals how independents underestimate their own power and how they can make the most of their newfound moment in the sun.

Author : Samara Klar
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316539067
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Independent Politics written by Samara Klar and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-19 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The number of independent voters in America increases each year, yet they remain misunderstood by both media and academics. Media describe independents as pivotal for electoral outcomes. Political scientists conclude that independents are merely 'undercover partisans': people who secretly hold partisan beliefs and are thus politically inconsequential. Both the pundits and the political scientists are wrong, argue the authors. They show that many Americans are becoming embarrassed of their political party. They deny to pollsters, party activists, friends, and even themselves, their true partisanship, instead choosing to go 'undercover' as independents. Independent Politics demonstrates that people intentionally mask their partisan preferences in social situations. Most importantly, breaking with decades of previous research, it argues that independents are highly politically consequential. The same motivations that lead people to identify as independent also diminish their willingness to engage in the types of political action that sustain the grassroots movements of American politics.

Author : Thom Reilly
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 100065544X
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Independent Voter written by Thom Reilly and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-30 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Independent voters—the 40–50 percent of Americans who reject identification with either of the two major parties or with any party—are increasing in number and impact. Independents are determining the outcome of major elections, upending the long-held categories of political science. Drawing on historical and contemporary data (including survey data, participant observation, interviews, and current writings and scholarship) and providing timely new analysis, the authors argue that independents are an engine for a transformation of US democracy, perhaps even its saviors. Rather than “leaning” to a party or an ideology, independents vary on issues but share a deep distrust of the partisan system. What are the consequences of this distrust? What about shifting trends among Black, Latino, and Asian communities regarding party loyalty? What of young voters who eschew party identification wanting a different kind of political culture? For a wide variety of audiences, this book gives students, scholars, campaign professionals, activists, and media analysts an insight into current voting dynamics and future possibilities.

Author : Lorraine C. Minnite
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801457823
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Myth of Voter Fraud written by Lorraine C. Minnite and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Allegations that widespread voter fraud is threatening to the integrity of American elections and American democracy itself have intensified since the disputed 2000 presidential election. The claim that elections are being stolen by illegal immigrants and unscrupulous voter registration activists and vote buyers has been used to persuade the public that voter malfeasance is of greater concern than structural inequities in the ways votes are gathered and tallied, justifying ever tighter restrictions on access to the polls. Yet, that claim is a myth. In The Myth of Voter Fraud, Lorraine C. Minnite presents the results of her meticulous search for evidence of voter fraud. She concludes that while voting irregularities produced by the fragmented and complex nature of the electoral process in the United States are common, incidents of deliberate voter fraud are actually quite rare. Based on painstaking research aggregating and sifting through data from a variety of sources, including public records requests to all fifty state governments and the U.S. Justice Department, Minnite contends that voter fraud is in reality a politically constructed myth intended to further complicate the voting process and reduce voter turnout. She refutes several high-profile charges of alleged voter fraud, such as the assertion that eight of the 9/11 hijackers were registered to vote, and makes the question of voter fraud more precise by distinguishing fraud from the manifold ways in which electoral democracy can be distorted. Effectively disentangling misunderstandings and deliberate distortions from reality, The Myth of Voter Fraud provides rigorous empirical evidence for those fighting to make the electoral process more efficient, more equitable, and more democratic.

Author : Jody C. Baumgartner
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780742547377
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.7X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Conventional Wisdom and American Elections written by Jody C. Baumgartner and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2008 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: List of illustrations --Preface --pt. 1. Voters --1. Thebig year for the youth vote : myth and reality --2. The"America divided" myth : red states, blue states, and other gaps --3. Themyth of the vanishing voters and the rise of the independent voter --pt. 2. Following campaigns --4. Misconceptions about the e-campaign : what the Internet can and cannot do for political campaigns --5. Myth or reality? : presidential campaigns have become nastier --6. Science or voodoo? : misconceptions about national election polls --7."It's the ratings, stupid" : misconceptions about media bias --8. A"dime's worth of difference?" : political parties and the myth of Tweedledum and Tweedledee --pt. 3. Understanding election outcomes --9. Selling of the president : the "image is everything" myth --10. Themisconception of competitive congressional elections --11. Presidential campaigns and "kingmaker" states : the myth of a national contest --Notes --Index --About the authors.

Author : Bill Bishop
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 0547525192
Total Pages : 478 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Big Sort written by Bill Bishop and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2009-05-11 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The award-winning journalist reveals the untold story of why America is so culturally and politically divided in this groundbreaking book. Armed with startling demographic data, Bill Bishop demonstrates how Americans have spent decades sorting themselves into alarmingly homogeneous communities—not by region or by state, but by city and neighborhood. With ever-increasing specificity, we choose the communities and media that are compatible with our lifestyles and beliefs. The result is a country that has become so ideologically inbred that people don't know and can't understand those who live just a few miles away. In The Big Sort, Bishop explores how this phenomenon came to be, and its dire implications for our country. He begins with stories about how we live today and then draws on history, economics, and our changing political landscape to create one of the most compelling big-picture accounts of America in recent memory.

Author : Karen M. Kaufmann
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195366840
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Unconventional Wisdom written by Karen M. Kaufmann and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Preface. 1. Facts and Myths about American Voters: An Introduction. 2. Americans Hate to Love Their Party, but They Do!. 3. Are American Voters Polarized?. 4. Who swings?. 5. Soccer Moms and Other Myths about the Gender Gap. 6. The Young and Not-So-Restless Voters. 7. The Partisan Bias of Turnout. 8. Campaign Effects in the Twenty-First Century. 9. Hard Facts and Conventional Wisdom as We Look to the Future. Appendices. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

Author : Daron R. Shaw
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0190089458
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Turnout Myth written by Daron R. Shaw and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When voter turnout is high, Democrats have an advantage - or so the truism goes. But, it is true? In The Turnout Myth, Daron Shaw and John Petrocik refute the widely held convention that high voter participation benefits Democrats while low involvement helps Republicans. The authors examineover 50 years of presidential, gubernatorial, Senatorial, and House election data to show that there is no consistent partisan effect associated with voter turnout in national elections. Instead, less-engaged citizens' responses to short-term forces - candidate appeal, issues, scandals, and the like- determine election turnout. Moreover, Republican and Democratic candidates are equally affected by short-term forces. The consistency of these effects suggests that partisan conflict over eligibility, registration, and voting rules and regulations is less important for election outcomes than bothsides seem to believe. Featuring powerful evidence and analytical acumen, this book provides a new foundation for thinking about U.S. elections.