The Myth of the Disengaged American

By Russell J. Dalton

Politicians, pundits and political scientists have decried the supposed erosion of political engagement among Americans. According to “A Nation of Spectators,” a bipartisan report by senators Bill Bennett and Sam Nunn on the state of American politics, “Too many of us lack confidence in our capacity to make basic moral and civic judgments, to join with our neighbors to do the work of community, to make a difference. Never have we had so many opportunities for participation, yet rarely have we felt so powerless.”

Several recent academic studies have tracked the downward trend in voting turnout in national elections, and attributed it to spreading apathy or distrust among the American public. The most prominent voice has been that of Robert Putnam, claiming that we are “Bowling Alone,” disconnected from our neighbors, our communities, and our political system.

New survey data just released from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems challenges this “myth of the disengaged American.” The CSES project asked a common survey questionnaire in more than two dozen democracies over the 2001-04 time period. All the surveys were conducted immediately after a national election to ensure equivalency in measuring participation in an electoral setting. Thus, we have a unique collection of data with which to address the question of whether Americans are disengaged when compared to other democratic publics.

Stereotypic images of Americans’ disengagement are largely based on turnout statistics for national elections. We do not present these data from the CSES nations, because this pattern is already well-known and well-documented in the literature. Even in the highly partisan and polarized environment of the 2004 U.S. presidential elections, with turnout rising about 5 percent over previous elections, barely half of Americans turned out to vote. The United States and Switzerland compete for the lowest rung on the turnout ladder for advanced industrial democracies, and nearly all of the new democracies in the CSES project had higher levels of turnout.

The turnout statistics are the fuel for negative images of American participation in comparative perspective, but these comparisons are only part of the story. First, numerous studies have demonstrated that the unusual nature of American registration rules and elections generates much of this participation gap. For instance, it is generally estimated that if the United States adopted a European-style registration system, turnout would increase by at least 10 percent. Similarly, the “winner-take-all” system of American elections produces lower turnout than the proportional representation systems used in most other democracies.

Second, simple turnout statistics overlook the “amount of electing” that occurs in the United States. The typical European voter may cast four or five votes in a four-year period, so voting is a rare activity that concentrates participation on a handful of votes. But many Americans face a dozen or more separate elections with a long list of ballot choices in a four-year period. Americans vote on an unmatched array of local, state, and federal offices, government bond proposals, and referendums or initiatives. The long ballots common to U.S. elections are unknown in Europe. They also make voting in America a more challenging task for the citizen confronted with so many choices.

When the content of U.S. elections is considered, a typical American probably casts three or four times more votes than citizens in other established democracies—even allowing for lower turnout levels in the United States. For example, between 1999 and 2004 a resident of Oxford, England, could have made a single ballot choice in four elections; a resident of Irvine, California, could have cast about forty choices in 2004 alone.

In short, turnout in national elections is low in the United States, but a simple count of the number voting in one election underestimates the actual engagement of Americans in elections.

Furthermore, there is more to democracy than elections.