This paper addresses the democratically fundamental question of the inclusiveness of electorates and of its impact on citizens' representation. While the literature has focussed on the congruence between voters and representatives, it has neglected congruence issues between citizens and representatives. The paper investigates comparatively this bias and source of newly disenfranchised citizens in a globalised society with increasing mobility. On the one hand, electoral laws vary in their inclusion or exclusion of expatriates (emigrants) and in the right to vote to non-national residents (immigrants). On the other hand, naturalisation laws vary in the maintenance of nationality for expatriates and in their inclusion of non-national residents. We illustrate levels of 'discrepancy' between electorate and citizenship in 22 OECD countries qualitatively, by presenting differences of electoral and nationality laws, and quantitatively, by comparing the size of citizenship with that of the electorate, and the national and resident populations. We show that shifts between political and national communities are primarily due to naturalisation laws and that electoral laws have so far been unable to correct for the discrepancy.
Population ageing has many consequences on society; one of them is the ageing of the electorate. The purpose of this article is to describe the past and future evolution of the electorate in Quebec as well as some of its consequences. Still today one of the youngest provinces in Canada, Quebec will be ageing rapidly from 2011 because of the arrival of the baby-boomers at age 65. According to the most recent projections of the Bureau de la Statistique du Quebec, 25 to 30% of the population will be aged 65 or over in 2041, so at least one person out of four. The electorate will aged accordingly: from 16% today, the elderly will represent between 30 and 35% of the population aged 18 or over in 2041. In 1951, there was 21 persons aged 65 or over for 100 aged 18 to 34. In I 996, this ratio was more than the double. In 2041, it could be 123 or even 168 depending on the scenario. The ageing of the electorate will have many consequences, in particular on States policies. The election on a majority basis in use in Quebec incites the political parties to design their platform in accordance with the interest of the median voter. Therefore, we can expect a reorientation of the social choices in favour of the elderly in the near future. Better educated, in better health and wealthiest, future senior citizens will probably be able to get better organised to defend their interest on the political scene. The linkage between individual and collective ageing bring certain observers to think that their ageing of the electorate will lead to a conservative society dominated by the absence of innovation, an attitude typically associated to the elderly. We know that the individuals tend to behave consistently, to keep their political opinions as they get older. This second hypothesis suggests that population ageing might encourage the pressure in favour of the independence of Quebec and not refrain it. In 2031, the vote of the baby-boomers, older but faithful to their convictions, combined with the one of the younger generations, favourably disposed to sovereignty, could lead to a "yes" in a referendum. The instability that characterizes political behaviour as well as eventual period effects limit the significance of our analysis.
The conceptual meaning of and the empirical evidence for the nationalization of the American electorate is explored. Two conceptually distinct dimensions of nationalization are identified: nationlization in terms of a convergence in the level of partisan support across geographical subunits of the electorate, and nationalization in terms of a uniformity of response by geographical units to political forces. Empirical estimates for both types of nationalization are derived for the American electorate for the period from 1842 to 1970. Unlike previous scholars, we find no trend toward increasing nationalization of the vote. Possible reasons for this lack of nationalization of the vote are suggested.
Arguing counter to the accepted positions of political sociology, we contend that voters' decisions are best explained by the absence or presence of strong loyalties to political parties rather than by social or economic factors. Hence, in areas where most people have strong party attachments, marked change in the partisan division of the vote occurs only when an exceptionally large number of new voters enters the electoral arena; alterations in the social composition of a party's voters follow changes in the occupation or social categories of those who consistently vote for the party. In presenting this argument, we analyze time-series data for Britain, West Germany, and Sweden which negate the predicted development of "catch-all" electorates, and we test the relative power of party and class variables as predictors of voting behavior in Butler's and Stokes's panel study of British voters between 1963 and 1970.
Ideological self-identification in the United States is well measured for the period 1970 to the present. Many survey measures are available and they are posed with considerable frequency and regularity. It is thus a relatively straightforward methodological exercise to combine them into a single measure of the American public's latent disposition to identify as liberal or conservative. What is problematic about this state of affairs is that the availability of these good measures occurs after a number of important changes in the American political context, changes that, we argue, have affected how Americans conceive of ideological terms and how scholars think about self-identification in the modern electorate. This paper seeks to measure and explain ideological self-identification in the time before modern survey research. We undertake an historical analysis of scattered pieces of public opinion data before 1970, assembling the pieces to build a time series of self-identification from 1937 to 2006. We then begin attempts at explaining the now observable, and often dramatic, changes in this series. [Copyright Elsevier Ltd.]
A reprint from The Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, 1933, 14, 3, Dec. The article reports on a study of voting behavior in Austin, Tex, in Apr, 1933, shortly after a municipal election in the city. The study covered all the 14,400 registered voters & r'ed voting habits with soc & demographic variables. The results of the study are discussed in the text of the article & summarized in charts. It was found that over 75% of the pop do not even qualify to vote & that only a small fraction of those who do actually voted. M's are over-represented in the electorate, & most married women vote only if their husbands vote, although the reverse is not true. The electorate & the voting pop are heavily weighted toward the upper econ groups & property owners &, in terms of occup, toward mfg, public service & transportation. Voters tend to concentrate in the middle ages & non-voters in the extremes; people over 60 are heavily represented among voters because they do not pay the poll tax. The state of Tex, it was found, has elaborate laws on voting qualification, & some groups are favored while others are disenfranchised. The 2 last variables considered are nativity & race. The proportion of electors went in declining order from people born in the city, to people born in other cities of Tex, to those born in other states, to foreign born. Austin has 3 racial groups: whites, Negroes & Mexicans. The % of electors is higher among whites than among the other 2 groups, & within each group of electors, the % of voters is higher among whites. The Mexicans are below Negroes in both respects. COMMENT IN RETROSPECT-the author presents his comments in the form of answers to 3 questions that the Ed addressed to him. (1) Why did he do this res? Because Austin just had a municipal election in which the author played some part & in which his side lost. (2) What has been the impact of the article? Very little on other pol'al sci'ts. As for himself, he has rarely returned to voting behavior but used the methods in his later work. (3) What is his assessment of the article today? In terms of subject matter, it is as timely & relevant as at the time it was written. In terms of method, it is out of date. In terms of writing, it is pretentious & roundabout. A. Peskin.
Mode of access: Internet. ; With this are bound its: Ihrer Chur-Furstl. Durchl. zu Sachssen, &c. &c. Dresden : Johann Carl Krause, [1772]; and its: Ihrer Chur-Furstl. Durchl. zu Sachssen, &c. &c. Mandat die General-Innungs-Articul fur Kunstler, Professionisten und Handwercker hiesiger Lande betreffend. Dresden : Gedruckt und zu finden in der Churfurstl. Sachss. gnadigst privil. Hof-Buchdruckerey, [1780]; and also its: Ihro Konigl. Majestat zu Sachsen, &c. &c. &c. Mandat die abstellung verschiedener Innungs-gebrechen betreffend. Dresden : Gedruckt und zu finden beym Hofbuchdrucker, 1810.