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Title: Electoral Order and Political Participation: Election Scheduling, Calendar Position, and Antebellum Congressional Turnout

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2008

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Abstract: Surge-and-decline theory accounts for an enduring regularity in American politics: the predictable increase in voter turnout that accompanies on-year congressional elections and its equally predictable decrease at midterm. Despite the theory's wide historical applicability, antebellum American political history offers a strong challenge to its generalizability, with patterns of surge-and-decline nowhere evident in the period's aggregate electoral data. Why? The answer to this puzzle lies with the institutional design of antebellum elections. Today, presidential and on-year congressional elections are everywhere same-day events. By comparison, antebellum states scheduled their on-year congressional elections in one of three ways: before, after, or on the same day as the presidential election. The structure of antebellum elections offers a unique opportunity-akin to a natural experiment-to illuminate surge-and-decline dynamics in ways not possible by the study of contemporary congressional elections alone. Utilizing quantitative and qualitative materials, our analysis clarifies and partly resolves this lack of fit between theory and historical record. It also adds to our understanding of the effects of political institutions and electoral design on citizen engagement.

Url: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/james/papers/EOPP.pdf

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Authors: Butler, Sara M; James, Scott C

Publisher: UCLA

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other

Countries: United States