Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Ruy A Teixeira is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and the Center for American Progress, as well as a fellow of the New Politics Institute, USA. He is the coauthor, with John B. Judis, of The Emerging Democratic Majority , selected by the Economist as one of the best books of 1992. He is also the coauthor, with Joel Rogers, of America's Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters (Brookings, 2001).<p>"With great clarity and insight, Ruy Teixeira tells us why Americans don't vote,and lays waste to much conventional wisdom in the process." —Richard Morin, <i>The Washington Post</i></p>|<p>"Ruy Teixeira has produced a well-written, thoughtful analysis of the decline in voter participation in America. The Disappearing Voter will be a valuable reference for all those who seek to address the problem." —Curtis B. Gans, Committee for the Study of the American Electorate</p>|<p>"A splendid new book. Teixeira has though long and deeply about the decline in turnout in American elections and what can be done to change it. The results is a masterful effort with important and sound advice to the country." —John H. Aldrich, Duke University</p>|<p>"This book is a fine piece of work. Its conclusions are well supported; its methodology is sound; and it is well written." —Richard A. Brody, Stanford University</p>|<p>"This is a very solid and professional piece of work in an area loaded with both data and interpretative minefields. It gives an excellent overview of the problem and proposals for it amelioration, and likely to rank among the best book-length treatments of the subject to appear with in the last decade." —Walter Dean Burnham, University of Texas at Austin</p>
The right to vote is the cornerstone of democracy. To millions around the world who have fought for that right, it is considered a privilege. Yet the magnitude of nonvoting in America is staggering. More than 91 million Americans did not vote in 1988, putting voter turnout at barely half of the voting-age population. This situation has stirred much comment and debate across the political spectrum, raising several questions: Why is voter turnout generally so low? Why has it declined steadily over the past three decades? Does low and declining turnout significantly bias the nature of contemporary U.S. politics? And what, if anything, can be done to increase voter participation? In this book, Ruy Teixeira addresses each of these question in detail in an effort to provide policymakers and the general public with a clearer view of the problem and possible solutions. The author's interpretations and recommendations are both provocative and firmly based on currently available data. Teixeira includes an assessment of current registration reform legislation and shows why a combination of registration reform and political reform is necessary to fully reverse the nonvoting trend and move to substantially higher turnout levels. He points out that while it is unlikely U.S. voter turnout will ever approach levels in Sweden, Australia, and Belgium—which are about 90 percent—with a thorough reform program, levels of around 70 percent, such as those in Japan and Canada, may be attainable.
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