The Myth of the Independent Voter

by Bruce E. Keith, David B. Magleby, Candice J. Nelson

Few events in American politics over the past two decades have generated more attention than the increasing number of voters calling themselves Independent. By the early 1970s Independents outnumbered Republicans, according to many eminent experts on voting behavior. Yet the authors of this incisive new commentary on American politics claim that most of this widespread speculation on declining party affiliation is simply wrong. They contend that most so-called Independents lean strongly toward one of the two parties and resemble―in all important respects―either Democrats or Republicans. Contrary to expert opinion, only a small segment of voters are truly "independent" of either major party.

Based on the most up-to-date 1990 data, The Myth of the Independent Voter provides a roadmap of the political arena for the general reader and scholar alike. Debunking conventional wisdom about voting patterns and allaying recent concerns about electoral stability and possible third party movements, the authors uncover faulty polling practices that have resulted in a skewed sense of the American voting population.

Demonstrating that most of what has been written about Independents for more than thirty years is myth, this challenging book offers a trenchant new understanding of the party system, voting behavior, and public opinion.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

244 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 1992

Reviews

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wavered between three and four stars for this book. I ultimately went with four because the subject matter is very important to understand if we hope to develop an accurate picture of American politics, but I do have to say in the same breath that this book could have been written in a much more engaging manner.

The thesis which Myth of the Independent Voter bears out is that people that self-identify as political independents are, most of the time, not. Though they make up almost a third of registered voters, most independents are actually partisans, voting for the same party the large majority of the time. In fact, independents on the whole tend to be more partisan than those that self-identify as "weak partisans." It is only a small subset of independents--somewhere around 10 percent of the electorate--that actually swing between the parties from one election cycle to the next. It is no surprise that these are also the voters that tend to be the least informed and least committed to voting in general.

As I mentioned earlier, understanding this concept is very important in seeing how elections work in the U.S. This book does a fine job of getting that across, and provides plenty of documentation to support the view. It is also, however, extremely repetitive. It feels very much like a paper that was stretched into a book on a quick timeline. If you merely read the opening and closing chapters, you are likely to get the drift enough to make the rest unnecessary--or you'd probably be even better served by just reading the original paper that became the book.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The image of the independent voter is often that of the rational calculator, assessing issue positions of candidates and then voting based on that calculus. Who is an independent, according to political scientists who study voting behavior? A person who says so on survey instruments, that's who! Based on that definition, at the time this book was published,ore and more Americans were deemed Independents. This book, though, uses data to suggest that "it ain't necessarily so."

A fine work when it came out. . . .