The Gerontologisl Vol. 40, No. 1, Copyr vpyright 2000 by Thic Gerontological Society of America

Transcription

1 Copyr vpyright 2000 by Thic Gerontological Society of America The Gerontologisl Vol. 40, No. 1, Contemporary politicians and their advisors focus on older voters as a pivotal segment of the American electorate. Some analysts predict that this preoccupation will intensify in the years ahead and the demands of older persons will dominate American politics. One reason for this focus on older voters is that they constitute a substantial proportion of voters today, largely because of age-group differences in voting turnout rates, and they will

2 Voting Participation, Over the past 30 years, the proportion of votes cast

3 centage of voting-age citizens has declined by almost one third, from 18.1% to just 12.7%. Percentage

4 Figure Year

5 % % % Percentage Change Figure 4. Change in voting participation rate by age groups, Source: Author's calculations from data in U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P20, sources to follow public affairs" (p. 35). More specifically, older people tend to be more generally knowledgeable about politics than younger people (Carpini & Keeter, 1993; Luskin, 1987). In studies and surveys of different cohorts over the years, older persons report

6 What Difference Does

7 been diverse in their political attitudes (Binstock & Day, 1996; Campbell

8 litical participation and representation of older people in Europe, Walker (1999) concluded that "[old] age

9 Year Figure

10 41.4% Figure

11 sible that

12 senior citizen communities

13 dential elections. But the past trends may not persist. Each of the age group categories will be made up of different birth cohorts than in the past, with different aggregate levels of health, education, income, partisan attachment,

14 Miller,