The American Voter

{{Short description|1960 book on political partisanship}} {{italic title}} {{refimprove|date=November 2016}} {{Infobox book | image = Angus Campbell - The American Voter (1960).jpg | author = [[Angus Campbell (psychologist)|Angus Campbell]], [[Philip Converse]], [[Warren Miller (political scientist)|Warren Miller]], and [[Donald E. Stokes]] | pub_date = 1960 | language = English | country = [[United States]] | genre = Non-fiction }}

'''''The American Voter''''', published in 1960, is a seminal study of [[voting behavior]] in the United States, authored by [[Angus Campbell (psychologist)|Angus Campbell]], [[Philip Converse]], [[Warren Miller (political scientist)|Warren Miller]], and [[Donald E. Stokes]], colleagues at the [[University of Michigan]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Jacoby |first=William G. |title=The American Voter |date=2010-05-02 |work=The Oxford Handbook of American Elections and Political Behavior |pages=262–277 |editor-last=Leighley |editor-first=Jan E. |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/34390/chapter/291631507 |access-date=2025-10-12 |edition=1 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199235476.003.0015 |isbn=978-0-19-923547-6|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Among its controversial conclusions, based on one of the first comprehensive studies of election survey data (what eventually became the [[National Election Studies]]), 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.<ref>Witten, D. (2015) [https://mathwizurd.com/government/2015/11/2/the-american-voter "The American Voter"] (blog, 2 November 2015)</ref><ref name="tav">Campbell, A., Converse, P.E., Miller, W.E., & Stokes, D.E. (1980) [https://books.google.com/books?id=JeYUrs_GOcMC&dq=the+american+voter+campbell&pg=PA18 ''The American Voter''.] University of Chicago Press.</ref> This theory of voter choice became known as the [[Michigan Model]].<ref name=maisal2009/> It was later extended to the United Kingdom by [[David Butler (psephologist)|David Butler]] and Donald Stokes in ''Political change in Britain''.<ref name="ButlerStokes1971">{{cite book |author1=David Butler |title=Political Change in Britain |author2=Donald E. Stokes |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=1971}}</ref>

''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.<ref name=key/> Successors in the Michigan school have argued that in relying heavily on data from the [[U.S. presidential election, 1956|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]] (see [[political realignment]]).

''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.<ref name=maisal2009/>

[[Warren Miller (political scientist)|Warren Miller]] (d. 1999) and Merrill Shanks from the [[University of California, Berkeley]] 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.<ref name=miller>Miller, W.E., Shanks, J.M., & Shapiro, R.Y. (1996) [http://archive.wilsonquarterly.com/sites/default/files/articles/WQ_VOL21_W_1997_Research.pdf ''The new American voter'' (pp. 140–46).] Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.</ref>

==References== <references> <ref name="maisal2009">Maisel, S.L., & Brewer, M.D. (2009) [2002 3rd Ed.]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=4MYF7iUWqpoC&dq=Parties+and+Elections+in+America:+The+Electoral+Process+%22Michegan+model%22&pg=PR1 ''Parties and Elections in America: The Electoral Process.'' (5th ed.)] Rowman & Littlefield.</ref> <ref name="key">Key, V.O. (1966). [http://www.thekellerproject.org/VO_Key_Responsible_Elector_reading-Unit-2.pdf ''The Esponsible Electorate'' (p. 150)]. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|0394704703}}</ref> </references>

{{DEFAULTSORT:American Voter, The}} [[Category:1960 non-fiction books|American Voter, The]] [[Category:Psephology|American Voter, The]] [[Category:Books about politics of the United States|American Voter, The]] [[Category:American political books]]