VOTERS AND ELECTIONS: PAST AND PRESENT

In: The journal of politics: JOP, Band 26, Heft 4, S. 745-757

Abstract

Over the last few yrs there has been a move -upwara& from the study of micro-pol'al units to an understanding of the flow of the totality, to apply the insights gained from the study of the individual to the explanation of the behavior of the whole. The results of such studies in voting represent the beginning of a new phase in pol'al analysis. The res's of the Survey Center of the U of Michigan into US voting have led to a considerable N of descriptive facts about the present-day electorate. The behavioral sci'st is in the unique position of being able to provide a realistic statement of the individual acts which together make up the collectivity; he has devised ways of measuring men as they are & not as they are supposed to be. The integration of historical evidence from the elections of the past with survey data from elections of the present seems a natural intellectual enterprise & it is not totally unrealistic to hope that something worthwhile will come from it. IPSA.