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Changing
Patterns of Voting in the Northern United States Electoral Realignment, 1952-1996 Robert W. Speel
1998 | 6 x 9 inches
American Politics, History - American
Hardback: $46.00 SH
ISBN: 978-0-271-01784-6
Paperback: $24.95 SH
ISBN: 978-0-271-02670-1
Using
a number of states as case studies, especially in New England, Changing
Patterns of Voting in the Northern United States explains why
large shifts in voter partisan preferences have occurred since the
1950s in that section of the country. In these Northern states, citizens
of New England Yankee or Norwegian ancestry and voters with higher
educational levels have abandoned historical preferences for the national
Republican party to vote in increasing percentages for Democratic
presidential candidates in almost every election since 1952. Many
of these areas in the past preferred the moderate or liberal wing
of the Republican party but have found their traditional party focusing
on conservative appeals to a Southern electorate in recent years.
In 1980, 1992, and 1996, many of these Northern areas demonstrated
significant support for the independent presidential candidacies of
John Anderson and Ross Perot, who represented a more moderate brand
of Republicanism than the party’s official candidates in those
years.
Changing Patterns of Voting in the Northern UnitedStates relies on actual voting data rather than public opinion surveys
to study trends among the electorate. This focus on voting statistics
allows an in-depth analysis of the many types of voting patterns
found in individual states that would not be apparent in national
survey data. It allows an alternative explanation for the growth
of split-ticket voting. While many attribute that growth to a decline
in party identification, this study suggests that voters may simply
identify with one party at the national level and another party
in state elections, because the national and state parties are able
to present different images to local voters in the federal system
we have in this country.
Robert
W. Speel is Assistant Professor of Political Science at The Behrend
College, the Penn State campus at Erie.
