Elections in Theory and Practice in the United States

This lecture was given in PS 240 on 9/15.

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Michigan Model of Voting This model, based on the book The American Voter published in 1960, assumes that partisan identification is entirely the result of the social influences of group membership and family influence. Partisan identification in turn determines policy attitudes of voters, their attitudes to group benefits, and their attitudes towards candidates. In short, socialization as a group member (i.e. gender, class, religion, age) combined with family influences determines partisan identification which determines an individual's vote.

Columbia School Focused on narrow groups, on the theory that sociological influences (family and friends) give a voter their political preferences.

The lecture also noted the necessity of making distinctions between U.S. elections before the 1930s when the secret ballot had fully spread in usage and the elections prior to then, which are not comparable to modern elections due to the absence of the secret ballot. The first major voting studies came after the 1930s.