Frustrated Majorities

How Issue Intensity Enables Smaller Groups of Voters to Get What They Want

Seth J. Hill

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781009167680
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009207447
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Democratic elections do not always deliver what majorities want. Many conclude from frustrated majorities a failure of democracy. This book argues the opposite may be true – that politicians who represent their constituents sometimes frustrate majorities. A theory of issue intensity explains how the intensity with which different voters care about political issues drives key features of elections, political participation, representation, and public policy. Because candidates for office are more certain of winning the votes of those who care intensely, they sometimes side with an intense minority over a less intense majority. Voters who care intensely communicate their intensity by taking political action: volunteering, contributing, and speaking out. From questions like whose voices should matter in a democracy to whose voices actually matter, this rigorous book blends ideas from democratic theory and formal political economy with new empirical evidence to tackle a topic of central importance to American politics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Theorems
• Acknowledgments
• Part I Frustrated Majorities, Issue Intensity, and Political Action
• Part II Argument: An Intensity Theory of Electoral Competition
• Part III Evidence: Empirical Patterns and Intensity Theory
• Part IV Conclusions
• Part V Appendices
• Bibliography
• Index