Material Information
- Title:
- ECONOMIC INEQUALITY AND AMERICAN VOTER PARTICIPATION: A COMPREHENSIVE CAUSAL MODEL
- Physical Description:
- Book
- Language:
- English
- Creator:
- Tyer, James
- Publisher:
- New College of Florida
- Place of Publication:
- Sarasota, Fla.
- Publication Date:
- 2014
Thesis/Dissertation Information
- Degree:
- Bachelor's ( B.A.)
- Degree Grantor:
- New College of Florida
- Degree Divisions:
- Social Sciences
- Area of Concentration:
- Political Science
Subjects
- Genre:
- bibliography ( marcgt )
theses ( marcgt )
government publication (state, provincial, territorial, dependent) ( marcgt )
born-digital ( sobekcm )
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Notes
- Abstract:
- This analysis attempts to create a causal model of the effect that economic inequality has on voter participation in the Unites States. Drawing from current relevant research, this model shows that economic inequality affects voting and other participatory propensities on multiple levels, and across various time frames, all of which produce independent effects. First, economic inequality produces disparities in income, and creates more poor individuals or poorer individuals, producing individual-level participatory declines, and an overall decline on aggregate. Second, economic inequality happens simultaneously with job restructuring, producing a structural reduction in participation from the change in the nature of the high-SES work, and by reducing more individuals to service-industry jobs, where there are lower participatory propensities. Third, in response to lower state funding for schools as a result of economic inequality, making these schools more vulnerable to market mechanisms in the need to secure external funding, and in response to market demand shifts due to occupational restructuring, educational disparities increase at the structural level, and even those of high SES who attend the better schools are less likely to learn the voter and participatory-conducive skills and attitudes that schools typically inculcate, reducing participation again at the structural level. These inequalities in resources and attitudes, as well as the overall decline in civic-oriented skills and attitudes, generate social distrust and reduce social capital, producing a macro-level independent effect. These mechanisms all produce a shift in the participatory infrastructure, where not only is the voter disparity more pronounced along SES lines, but also the relative value of voting declines compared with other non-voting forms of participation, especially campaign contributions, and the opportunity to participate is even further stratified. This produces negative feedback for voters of low and high SES alike, where neither have much of an incentive to vote, reducing voting further. This bias in policy input then, finally, further generates more inequality, producing a system-reinforcing effect. The researcher then lists several ways to reduce the effect of the mechanistic relationship, and to generate greater voter and participatory propensity.
- Statement of Responsibility:
- by James Tyer
- Thesis:
- Thesis (B.A.) -- New College of Florida, 2014
- General Note:
- RESTRICTED TO NCF STUDENTS, STAFF, FACULTY, AND ON-CAMPUS USE
- Bibliography:
- Includes bibliographical references.
- General Note:
- This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.
- General Note:
- Faculty Sponsor: Fitzgerald, Keith
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- New College of Florida
- Holding Location:
- New College of Florida
- Rights Management:
- Applicable rights reserved.
- Classification:
- S.T. 2014 T9
- System ID:
- AA00024822:00001
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