Why Americans Don't Vote

by Frances Fox Piven

Now in paperback, a masterful account of why so few Americans vote and of how our electoral process works to keep it that way--updated to include an analysis of this year's election results.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction

325 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Frances Fox Piven is an American professor of political science and sociology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, where she has taught since 1982. Piven is known equally for her contributions to social theory and for her social activism.

Reviews

[Adam Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book about how we have gotten to a place in American history where less than 50% of Americans vote in our electoral process. Piven and her husband document the beginnings of this decline in the disenfranchisement of black voters after the Civil War, techniques that were also then used on whites who did not own property. After 1896, this transmuted into voter registration legislation that disproportionally exiles the lower classes, including much of the African American population and poor whites. They also show that disenfranchising the lower classes has been a way to keep the powerful in power, and a way in which the conservative Right in particular has held onto its power (the GOP has proposed most of the so-called voter ID bills that disenfranchise the poor). As Paul Weyrich said in 1980 (Weyrich was the founder of the Heritage Foundation and the architect of the Christian Right), "I don't want everybody to vote. If I might speak candidly for a moment, quite frankly our advantage in elections goes up as the voting populous goes down." Why is this? Because the poor tend not to support the Right, at least not exclusively. Non-voters in 1980 and 1984 would have prevented Reagan from being elected President, and they also strongly favored Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. Piven, however, is much less partisan than this summary makes it seem. Her chief interest is in documenting the history of voting and voter disenfranchisement in American history, and there is plenty of blame to share around. What matters more are the policy suggestions for increasing voter turnout. More than anything, this book and the history it discusses has reinforced for me the importance of voting, and having the vote accessible to all.

[Public Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of great information here about the low voter turnout trend over the last century in the US. The really heartbreaking thing is that since this book was written in the mid-80s, a lot of the prescriptions this book suggests to solve this problem, motor-voter laws and registration at government offices, have been enacted. Yet we still have low voter turnout (Obama elections excepted). I totally agree that since registered voters vote we need universal registration... but the trick is making that happen.