Who Votes?

Elections are at the heart of the American political system, but in 1976 only 54 percent of the voting age population went to the polls. The question of who votes matters greatly to everyone involved in politics and to all those concerned about the current and future state of American democracy. Based on data from the 1972 and 1974 Census Bureau surveys, Wolfinger and Rosenstone are able to identify for the first time those social and economic groups that are most likely to vote and to explain sensibly and convincingly those factors that influence voter turnout.

Represents a major contribution to the literature dealing with voting behavior in the United States...Combines the strong analytical skills of two scholars with a unique and revealing data set. The result is a sophisticated, highly quantitative, but most readable assessment of the sociological, motivational, and political factors that account for variation in electoral participation.