Timing and Turnout
Regular price
€96.99
A01=Sarah F. Anzia
advantage
american
Author_Sarah F. Anzia
california
Category=JPHF
democracy
elected officials
elections
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
governing
government
minority
mobilization efforts
municipal workers
off cycle
organizations
organized
partisan
political outcomes
politicians
politics
power
public policy
representation
teachers unions
timing
turnout
united states of america
usa
voting
Product details
- ISBN 9780226086781
- Weight: 510g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 03 Dec 2013
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Public policy in the United States is the product of decisions made by more than 500,000 elected officials, the vast majority of them elected on days other than Election Day. And because far fewer voters turn out for off-cycle elections, that means the majority of officials in America are elected by a politically motivated minority of Americans. Sarah F. Anzia is the first to systemically address the effects of election timing on political outcomes, and her findings are eye-opening. The low turnout for off-cycle elections, Anzia argues, increases the influence of organized interest groups like teachers' unions and municipal workers. While such groups tend to vote at high rates regardless of when the election is held, the low turnout in off-cycle years enhances the effectiveness of their mobilization efforts and makes them a proportionately larger bloc. Throughout American history, the issue of election timing has been a contentious one. Anzia's book traces efforts by interest groups and political parties to change the timing of elections to their advantage, resulting in the electoral structures we have today.
Ultimately, what might seem at first glance to be mundane matters of scheduling are better understood as tactics designed to distribute political power, determining who has an advantage in the electoral process and who will control government at the municipal, county, and state levels.
Sarah F. Anzia is assistant professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Berkeley, CA.
