There are more democracies in the world now than ever before. Elections and voting are the lynchpins of new and established democracies alike. The object of this chapter is to examine the recent developments within studies of elections and voting. This general topic is far too vast for any single chapter or set of authors to survey comprehensively; instead we focus on the developments centered around two of the most central aspects of elections: Who votes and why? Who do those voters vote for and why? We also examine one of the most interesting new developments in election studies in recent years, political polarization, especially as it pertains to our central concerns with turnout and vote choice. While much of our attention centers on the United States, we consider developments as they pertain to the other established democracies as well as to newer and emerging democratic nations.
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Redding, K., Barwis, P.J., Summers, N. (2010). Elections and Voting. In: Leicht, K.T., Jenkins, J.C. (eds) Handbook of Politics. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68930-2_27
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