The American Voter Revisited

Today we are politically polarized as never before. The presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 will be remembered as two of the most contentious political events in American history. Yet despite the recent election upheaval, The American Voter Revisited discovers that voter behavior has been remarkably consistent over the last half century. And if the authors are correct in their predictions, 2008 will show just how reliably the American voter weighs in, election after election.

The American Voter Revisited re-creates the outstanding 1960 classic The American Voter—which was based on the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956—following the same format, theory, and mode of analysis as the original. In this new volume, the authors test the ideas and methods of the original against presidential election surveys from 2000 and 2004. Surprisingly, the contemporary American voter is found to behave politically much like voters of the 1950s.

Michael S. Lewis-Beck is F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa.

William G. Jacoby is Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University.

Helmut Norpoth is Professor of Political Science at Stony Brook University.

Herbert F. Weisberg is Professor of Political Science at Ohio State University.

Praise / Awards

• "Simply essential. For generations, serious students of American politics have kept The American Voter right on their desk. Now, everyone will keep The American Voter Revisited right next to it."
  —Larry J. Sabato, Director, U.VA. Center for Politics and author of A More Perfect Constitution

• "The American Voter Revisited is destined to be the definitive volume on American electoral behavior for decades. It is a timely book for 2008, with in-depth analyses of the 2000 and 2004 elections updating and extending the findings of the original The American Voter. It is also quite accessible, making it ideal for graduate students as well as advanced undergrads."
  —Andrew E. Smith, Director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center

• "A theoretically faithful, empirically innovative, comprehensive update of the original classic."
  —Sam Popkin, Professor of Political Science, University of California, San Diego

• "This book is a must read for anyone interested in voting behavior."
  —Q. Kidd, Choice

• "One would certainly expect voters today to be much better informed than their 1950s counterparts . . . Alas, it isn't so. Lewis-Beck called the new findings a 'shocker'."
  —Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera

• "The American Voter Revisited is chock-full of depressing conclusions, couched in academic understatement. In-depth interviews conducted with 1,500 people during the two most recent presidential elections revealed that the "majority of people don't have many issues in mind" when they discuss voting, Lewis-Beck says. Sometimes they say they're attracted to a candidate because "I just don't think we should change parties right now." They tend to inherit their party allegiance from their parents, and those beliefs tend to stay fixed throughout their lives, he says."
  —Libby Copeland, Washington Post