--- Bryon Daly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Do you think it is unhappiness explicitly at being > at war that drives > the high turnout? What about other types of > unhappiness, such as the > economic misery of the Great Depression or in 1980?
Historically periods of high voter turnout correlate quite closely with the nation being in trouble. IIRC, the two highest turnout elections of the 19th century (and probably ever) to the extent that we have numbers were 1860 and 1864. It _really mattered_ who won the Presidency in both of those years. By contrast, 1988 and 1996 were very low turnout elections. The economy was humming, foreign policy was in decent shape, and people generally felt that life was pretty good. Voter turnout during the Great Depression is generally accepted as being very high (I seem to recall that 1932 in particular saw enormous turnout in favor of FDR). In fact, the whole generation that grew up during the Great Depression and WW2 has abnormally high turnout rates - much of the much-bemoaned decline in turnout among the young appears to be a return to historical American norms (all of this from a lecture by Paul Peterson and Morris Fiorina all the way back in the Spring of 1998 - details are in their textbook called, I believe, _The New American Democracy_). ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Check out the new Yahoo! Front Page. www.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
