American Democracy Now, 2nd Edition (Harrison)

Chapter 9: Elections, Campaigns, and Voting

Chapter Outline



  1. Political Participation: Engaging Individuals, Shaping Polities
  2. Elections in the United States
    1. Nominations and Primary Elections
      1. Types of Primary Elections
      2. Presidential Primaries
    2. General Elections
    3. Referendum, Initiative, and Recall
  3. The Act of Voting
    1. The 2000 Election and Its Impact
    2. Types of Ballots
    3. Why Ballot Design Matters
    4. Voting by Mail
  4. Running for Office: The Choice to Run
    1. Formal Eligibility Requirements
    2. Informal Eligibility Requirements
  5. The Nature of Campaigns Today
    1. The Professionalization of Political Campaigns
    2. Media and New Technologies: Transforming Political Campaigns
      1. Personality versus Policy
    3. Revolutionizing the Campaign: New Technologies
  6. Regulating Federal Campaign Contributions
    1. Regulatory Loopholes: Independent Expenditures
    2. Regulatory Loopholes: Soft Money
    3. The Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002
    4. Regulatory Loophole: 527s
    5. The Growth of PACs
  7. Presidential Campaigns
    1. Party Conventions and the General Election Campaign
    2. The Electoral College
  8. Who Votes? Factors in Voter Participation
    1. Education Level—the Number One Predictor of Voting
    2. The Age Factor
    3. Race and Voter Participation
    4. Income—a Reliable Predictor of Voting
    5. Party Competitiveness and Voter Turnout
  9. How Voters Decide
    1. Major Factors in Voter Decision Making
    2. Campaign Influences on Voter Choice
  10. Why Some People Do Not Vote
    1. Lack of Efficacy
    2. Voter Fatigue and Negative Campaigns
    3. The Structure of Elections
    4. The Rational Abstention Thesis
    5. The Impact of Nonvoting
Harrison: American Democracy Now, 2nd Edition
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