It is important to remember that elections are but one piece--albeit an important one--of much larger processes of politics and governance. Moreover, in the United States they are increasingly implicated in the construction of identities and places. What goes on in the course of electoral politics (creating electoral systems and voting districts,…

Adolescent voluntary associations are particularly well positioned in the life course to encourage voting as youth become full citizens. Extracurriculars socialize students into voting by habituating them to civic engagement and by connecting them to politically engaged cultures. We establish this argument by testing the effects of high school…

For students of history, the acrimonious and contentious 1876 presidential canvass came to mind during the 2000 election imbroglio. Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote, but to the dismay of outraged Democrats, an electoral commission of eight Republicans and seven Democrats decided along strict party lines to give twenty disputed…

Attempts to uncover clues concerning the ways people of different orientations responded to incoming information during the 1976 Presidential campaign. (MH)

A study investigated whether reliance on television rather than on newspapers affected the way people made voting decisions. Specifically, it focused on whether television reliance was associated with greater candidate image evaluation and newspaper reliance with greater issue importance in the prediction of voter preferences. Telephone interviews…

Notes that party decomposition is likely to continue. The probable future pattern is one where the major parties continue to exert influence on the voting choices of the American public, but where many voters are available for mobilization by competing movements. (Author/AM)

The major proposition in this essay is that black politics is moving from the tumultuous politics of idealistic protest to a cautious politics of backlash pragmatism. (Author)

The superintendent of the Durham County, North Carolina, schools explains the approach he took in gaining passage of a financial election. The method is that termed "voter crosspressure" in another article in this issue. (IRT)

Examines factors related to immigrant incorporation and voting participation, adding immigrant-related variables to a model controlling for individual resources, social incorporation, institutional barriers, and contexts of political mobilization. Current Population Survey data indicate that there is little support for straight-line…

Data collected as part of a larger survey that focused on the 1978 gubernatorial race in New York State were used in a study of political advertising and media credibility. Specifically, the study examined the factors that influence an individual's rating of the helpfulness of political advertising and related these factors to voting patterns. A…

Finds little interaction between political information level, strength of party identification, and voting defection (not voting according to the "party line"). Concludes that the decision to defect from party affiliation is largely related to the specific issues in a political campaign. (RL)

To examine the congruency between voters' personal agendas and the perceived agendas of candidates, 160 college students interviewed repeatedly during the 1980 presidential campaign were asked to rate both the importance they assigned and the importance they felt each candidate assigned to eight major campaign issues. The influence of the election…

Reasons for George McGovern's presidential election failure are summarized in the context of McGovern's rhetoric as a challenger. Taking the point of view that McGovern abandoned the traditional rhetorical advantages of the challenger, the authors conclude that this abandonment along with the problems of financing, the impression of alignment with…

"Agenda-setting" is a concept that describes the effect of the news media on social groups and public opinion on major issues. Recent studies in communication are focusing on the power of the media, by selection of and emphasis on selected news, to influence public attention and to raise certain issues high on the public "agenda." The effect of…

This study reviews research on the defeat of incumbent school board members and presents new election data on 104 southern California school districts. The findings confirm that incumbent defeat is episodic, but they challenge previous research regarding its nature and origins. (Author)