Is the Youth Vote Liberal?

Zachary Cook

doi:10.5771/9781666925715

Summary

Young Americans are not reliable liberals. But drawing from over one hundred surveys from the present day back to the Great Depression, and from interviews with campaign professionals from the Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders campaigns, Zachary Cook argues that across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, younger Americans have more faith in the power of government to provide better economic outcomes for all, and to effectively regulate business – if the right politicians can be found to do it. While older voters grow more skeptical about the federal government’s power to oversee the private sector, youth are more idealistic about the power of government to “do more,” even while they may distrust current politicians in office. Younger voters are not hostile to capitalism. They do not feel they have to choose sides between big government and big business. Given the current two-party system, this potential trust in the power of government works in the Democrats’ favor when appealing to the youth vote.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2024
ISBN-Print: 978-1-66692-570-8
ISBN-Online: 978-1-6669-2571-5
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 230
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Acknowledgments No access
1. The Essentials of Youth Limited Liberalism No access
2. What about Cultural Liberalism? No access
3. Structure of Book No access
4. Notes No access
1. Why No Generations? No access
2. What Is a Life-Cycle Effect? No access
3. What Is Limited Liberalism? No access
4. Why Limited Liberalism Is Narrower than Economic Liberalism No access
5. Is This All Really Trust in Government? No access
6. The Education of Walter Lippmann No access
7. Who Counts as Young? No access
8. Notes No access
1. The Many Challenges of Cohort Effects No access
2. The Challenges of Estimating Life-Cycle Effects No access
3. Controlling for Omitted Variables and Mortality Effects No access
4. What about Mortality Bias? No access
5. The Limits of Youth Liberalism No access
6. Chapter 3 Appendix No access
7. Notes No access
1. Methodology and Case Selection No access
2. Findings from the 1937 to 1938 Era No access
3. The 1951–1952 Election No access
4. Life-Cycle Effects and Conservatism No access
5. Notes No access
1. The Meaning of Partisan Identification No access
2. Why Reagan is a Good Case Example No access
3. Limited Liberalism and Democratic Candidate Choice No access
4. What about Race and Ethnicity? No access
5. Notes No access
1. Previous Scholarship on Younger Voters and Charismatic Democrats No access
2. Interview Methodology No access
3. Personal Candidate Traits: Style, Coolness, Race, Inspiration, Authenticity No access
4. Conclusion No access
5. Note No access
1. The Youth Vote for President: Still Democratic No access
2. Limited Liberalism and the Two-Party System No access
3. 1. Economic Stress No access
  2. Demographic Trends No access
  3. Cultural Liberalism No access
4. The Battle for the Courts No access
5. Notes No access
Bibliography No access Pages 195 - 222
Index No access Pages 223 - 228
About the Author No access Pages 229 - 230