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The American Nonvoter examines how uncertainty regarding the national context influences people's decisions whether to vote or not. During times of national crisis, when uncertainty is high, voting increases; during times of stability people stay home. Using rigorous statistical tools and rich historical stories, Lyn Ragsdale and Jerrold G. Rusk show how uncertainty in the national campaign context reduces nonvoting in presidential and midterm elections from
1920 to 2012.
About the author
Lyn Ragsdale is Radoslav A. Tsanoff Professor of Public Affairs and Professor of Political Science at Rice University.
Jerrold G. Rusk is Professor of Political Science at Rice University.
Summary
A diverse body of research exists to explain why eligible voters don't go to the polls on election day. Theories span from the psychological (nonvoters have limited emotional engagement with politics and therefore lack motivation), to the social (politics is inherently social and nonvoters have limited networks), and the personal (nonvoters tend to be young, less educated, poor, and highly mobile). Other scholars suggest that people don't vote because campaigns are uninspiring. This book poses a new theory: uncertainty about the national context at the time of the election. During times of national crisis, when uncertainty is high, citizens are motivated to sort through information about each candidate to figure out which would best mitigate their uncertainty. When external uncertainty is low, however, citizens spend less time learning about candidates and are equally unmotivated to vote.
The American Nonvoter examines how uncertainty regarding changing economic conditions, dramatic national events, and U.S. international interventions influences people's decisions whether to vote or not. Using rigorous statistical tools and rich historical stories, Lyn Ragsdale and Jerrold G. Rusk test this theory on aggregate nonvoting patterns in the United States across presidential and midterm elections from 1920 to 2012. The authors also challenge the stereotype of nonvoters as poor, uneducated and apathetic. Instead, the book shows that nonvoters are, by and large, as politically knowledgeable as voters, but see no difference between candidates or view them negatively.
Additional text
In a landmark study of political participation, Ragsdale and Rusk uncover several important explanations for nonvoting in US elections. An abundance of important findingsall derived from careful researchmake this an essential volume for all scholars of US politics.
